Young Offenders

RECENTLY, students in my juvenile justice class and I discussed a case in which a 12-year-old and some friends brought plastic bags and a medicine vial to school containing milk chips that resembled crack cocaine. Timothy distributed the milk chips to his friends throughout the school day. He did not try to disguise the fact that these were chips. He did not seek money for their distribution. None of his schoolmates thought he had or was trying to distribute crack. Nevertheless, Timothy was found delinquent on the basis of distributing a controlled, dangerous substance.

When the woman's teen-age daughter assaulted her and vandalized her Wilde Lake home about a year ago, she called police to have her only child arrested."

THE DEATH OF Joseph A. Harvey Jr., who was attacked and stabbed by a group of teen-age boys Friday, hit a little too close to home for me. Harvey left his home about 5 p.m. to escort a family friend, a woman, to the bus stop. He was on his way back home when three boys attacked him. They "punched, kicked, threw bottles at him and stabbed him in the back of the left leg," said Detective Donny Moses, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department. Harvey staggered into Charlie's Chinese Carryout in the 5200 block of Park Heights Ave. He died a short time later at Sinai Hospital.

One by one, the dozen teenagers ambled up to the podium Monday, looked nervously around the filled courtroom and cleared their throats. Then, each delivered a brief speech about overcoming challenges and facing controversy, in the 15th annual oratorical contest for youths in the care of the Department of Juvenile Services. "I didn't come here to win first place," said Ricky, as the group waited for results of the judging. "I came here to show appreciation for my dad. ... I love you, Mom and Dad."

The Careers Center, Anne Arundel County's alternative sentencing program that teaches job and communications skills to troubled youths, apparently is facing its last days, even though it has been highly praised by juvenile system judges.County Executive Robert R. Neall will not reconsider his decision to slice the $333,660 program from his budget, spokeswoman Louise Hayman said yesterday.The program is a victim of a county budget squeezed by cuts in state aid and the reduction in revenue caused by the property tax cap."

The five teens, brought from city juvenile detention facilities to participate in a panel discussion yesterday, talked about recognizing the bad choices they had made and how they wanted to better themselves. But asked whether they felt safe in their neighborhoods, their answers showed just how tenuous staying on the right path can be. "For me, safe or not safe, it doesn't matter because things can go bad in a second," said one of the teens, who added that he once made $850 a week on the streets slinging drugs.

The Baltimore teen-ager was in Juvenile Court again, this time for stealing a car. The prosecutor argued he should be sent to private reformatory in Pennsylvania, and the judge agreed.But the state Department of Juvenile Services -- which pays for the care of such youngsters -- is of a different opinion.Department officials say that the youth could be handled just as well, and at less cost, in a state-run center in Maryland. They have also told Baltimore Circuit Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan that if he insists on sending the boy to Pennsylvania, they will refuse to pay the bill.

Teachers at the Baltimore Juvenile Justice Center shouldn't have to worry about safety while trying to educate kids detained on criminal charges. They are dealing with youths who more likely than not have learning issues, behavioral problems or were truants before their arrests. Engaging them in learning in the short time they spend at the center - anywhere from 15 to 49 days - is a challenge from the start. The Department of Juvenile Services must ensure that its staffers are present in the classroom so that teachers will feel safer and kids may learn more, too. The safety issue was raised in a March letter to Gov. Martin O'Malley signed by several teachers.

The advisory board for a center for juvenile offenders on the Eastern Shore is protesting the state's decision to transfer youths there from the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, saying the center is already crowded. John E. Nunn III, who heads the advisory board of the state-run J. DeWeese Carter Center in Chestertown, wrote Juvenile Services Secretary Kenneth C. Montague Jr. on Nov. 18 to express the panel's concerns. The Carter Center is "overcrowded and understaffed," Nunn wrote, saying 27 youths were being housed at a facility designed for 15. "They are bringing in more kids and don't have enough people to run this facility now," said Nunn, a Kent County public defender, in an interview.