Juvenile Justice System

IT MAY SEEM backward, but it's true: Mentally ill adults who commit crimes get treated better in Maryland than children with equally severe problems who run afoul of the law. That's not good for kids, and it's not good for the rest of us who may be put at risk. The Maryland General Assembly is now considering legislation to fix this gaping hole in the law. Currently in Maryland, adults who cannot understand the criminal charges against them or cannot meaningfully consult with their lawyer are found to be incompetent and are required to receive treatment before facing trial.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. unveiled yesterday a package of child welfare and juvenile justice proposals that would expand access to day care for low-income families, improve foster care placements, better train child welfare caseworkers and offer more community-based services to children in the juvenile justice system. The more than $65 million in new funding -- along with previously announced proposals to beef up lead abatement and enact stricter rules for teenage drivers -- makes up the bulk of Ehrlich's legislative agenda, which also includes legalizing slot machines and restricting medical malpractice lawsuits.

Right treatment can put juveniles on a better path I write to support the "Potential model for Maryland" (Dec. 13) discussed by reporter Greg Garland. The future of Baltimore and of Maryland depend on the state's willingness to think creatively about - and fund appropriately - programs that break the cycle of criminal families. Surely, many detainees grow up in environments where violent and criminal behavior is more normal than deviant. Detention in the juvenile justice system, although unfortunate in many respects, presents a vital intervention opportunity.

CHRONIC OFFENDERS are slipping through the chasms in Baltimore's juvenile justice system, boosting crime statistics and endangering the community as well as themselves. The blame is shared, and so must the solution be. Some of the most egregious juvenile offenders cycle quickly through the system, in some cases racking up another arrest and more charges just days after they were arraigned on an earlier charge, according to a report released this week by the city's Police Department. Of the 4,124 juvenile arrests in the first six months of this year, 2,044 -- almost half -- were charged to the same 830 youths, just 28 percent of the total number of kids arrested.

Governor fails to cure woes of juvenile justice I couldn't agree more with Michael Olesker's assessment of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s failures on the juvenile justice system ("Ehrlich hopes we forget his promises to kids," Sept. 21). Mr. Ehrlich campaigned on an issue that he apparently cares little about. Since his administration took the helm of our state, Mr. Ehrlich has done nothing to improve the juvenile justice system. The Department of Juvenile Services has been slow to move on egregious problems such as the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School and the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center.

Here lies Earl Rodney Monroe Jr., rehabilitated to death by the Baltimore juvenile "justice" system. IF THERE is anything like truth in headstones, that's what Monroe's should say. The 15-year-old West Baltimore youth was fatally shot in early June, but not before running up an arrest record for drug dealing that saw police nab him 11 times before "street justice" - that term every bit as oxymoronic as "juvenile justice" - caught up with him. Sun reporter...

Earl Rodney Monroe Jr. was 14 when police first arrested him. In a little more than a year, officers nabbed the boy 10 more times, lodging felony charges that pointed to one conclusion: Lil' Earl was dealing drugs on the streets of his West Baltimore neighborhood. After each arrest, he entered a juvenile system that's supposed to provide swift treatment and, if necessary, detention. But every time Earl was arrested, juvenile justice workers and judges released him, only to see him return.

ON ANY NIGHT, nearly 2,000 youths languish in juvenile detention facilities across the country because they cannot access mental health services. As a result, children are endangered and traumatized and corrections staff struggle to serve a population they are ill-equipped to handle, all at taxpayer expense. Until recently, policy-makers have ignored the issue. Democratic Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California and Republican Sen. Susan M. Collins of Maine commissioned the first national survey of children held in juvenile detention centers awaiting mental health services.

IT SOUNDS at first like yet another example of researchers telling the world what anybody with any sense already knew. Or, at least in this case, what long-suffering parents of teenagers already knew: Different parts of the brain mature at different stages, and the part that governs complex functions such as reasoning and judgment matures last of all - usually between the ages of 18 and 21. But the new study, conducted by researchers at the National Institute...

AT 15, Michael L. Taylor faced an audience at a state-run boot camp for teen-age offenders and promised never to hurt anyone again. It was a promise he didn't keep, couldn't keep. Today, at age 20, he sits in a federal courtroom in Baltimore, listening to the story of his life, a tale of drugs and deprivation that may save him from an executioner's syringe. Mr. Taylor, along with several boyhood friends, sold crack cocaine and killed to protect their West Baltimore turf in the impoverished neighborhood of the now-demolished Lexington Terrace housing project where they lived.