Maryland Strikes Juvenile Center Deal With Feds
BALTIMORE — Maryland officials agreed to improve conditions at the 144-bed Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center under threat of a federal lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice, officials say.
To satisfy DOJ officials and avoid a federal lawsuit, the city will implement a series of changes that include improving mental health and educational services and behavioral management at the facility, which houses pre- and post-adjudication juveniles.
The settlement, which extends a pre-existing agreement involving two other state-run juvenile facilities to cover Baltimore’s city juvenile center, comes in the wake of a 2005 DOJ report that criticized the center and its violent and dysfunctional environment.
The center will reduce the amount of time juveniles spend in isolation and increase monitoring of detainees held in seclusion or on suicide watch, officials say.
Several interior design changes will be made to the Baltimore city facility, which opened in 2003, to enhance safety and protect against suicide attempts, including enclosing second-story railings with protective glass.
The center, its conditions and staff performance will be monitored quarterly by authorities, officials say, with reviews, design upgrades and enhanced staff training estimated to cost less than $140,000.
The DOJ concluded that several, conditions and practices at the center violate the constitutional rights of youth detainees, noting that youths suffer significant harm or risk of harm from the center’s failure to protect them from violence, assault and suicide.
Constitutional deficiencies in the protection from harm revealed by the investigation include the center’s failure to adequately:
- Protect detainees from violence
- Safeguard youths against suicide
- Provide behavioral healthcare services
- Provide the required educational services.
A first quarter report filed this year by the juvenile justice monitoring unit of the state attorney general found youth-related violence at the facility had increased to 162 incidents compared with 127 documented incidents in the same quarter last year.
Maryland ‘s new juvenile services secretary recently instituted fresh guidelines governing the use of physical and mechanical restraints in state juvenile facilities after the January death of a Baltimore teenager who had been restrained at the Bowling Brook Preparatory School .
The privately operated Carroll County facility, which was licensed by the state, was closed in the aftermath and five former facility counselors were indicted in April on charges of reckless endangerment in connection with the teenager’s death.