Maryland Finally Passes Juvenile Crime Legislation

Maryland clearly has a lot on its plate at the moment, particularly in Baltimore where they have bridges collapsing and shipping lanes closed down. But they still have a serious crime problem running out of control, especially when it comes to juvenile crime rates. Now the state legislature has finally been moved to do something about it, or at least give the impression that they are attempting to do so. After a lengthy period of work and debate, the General Assembly signed off on a new “juvenile justice bill” yesterday and sent it to Democratic Governor Wes Moore for approval. Curiously, it was the Democrats in Baltimore who were pushing back against it the most vigorously, despite arguably being in the most need of such changes. Under this measure, more will allegedly be done to deal with crimes committed by youths. As always, however, the devil is in the details. (Baltimore Sun)

The Maryland General Assembly gave final approval to its high-priority, multi-pronged juvenile justice bill Friday, officially passing it to Gov. Wes Moore for consideration.

“There’s a crime perception problem,” said Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Will Smith. “The components of this bill are a significant part of affording accountability and transparency in the entire process.”

The bill, ushered through the Senate by Smith, and in the House by Judiciary Committee Chair Luke Clippinger — both of whom are Democrats — seeks to quell constituent calls about increased instances of carjackings, car thefts and firearms charges among Maryland youth.

As suggested above, the bill passed in both the Assembly and the State Senate by overwhelming margins, with the only no votes coming from representatives from Baltimore. They amazingly claimed that the bill was “the product of a lot of media-driven panic.” Opponents argued that people are “lying about juvenile crime rates” and said they were fighting against “the perception of a crime problem.”

That’s an indication of the huge hurdles that Maryland lawmakers have to overcome, particularly when trying to deal with juvenile crime issues. They don’t have a “perception of a crime problem.” They have an actual crime problem. Rates of carjackings and weapons crimes are up, with juvenile offenders almost always being immediately put back out on the streets with little to no intervention or records being kept to monitor repeat offenders.

This bill appears to at least partially address some of those issues. Under the new law, 13 and 14-year-olds can more easily be held in detention while awaiting trial for more serious crimes. Even children of ten and eleven will be able to be detained on the most serious charges if they are repeat offenders. Each juvenile arrest will require the filing of a permanent record and the expansion of a database so those records can be checked following subsequent arrests.

Will any of this make a significant difference in Baltimore’s crime statistics next year? (The entirety of the legislation doesn’t take effect until November.) The city still has to deal with its “squeegee boy” problem, along with Charm City’s infamous gangs. They will also need to find and elect prosecutors and judges who are willing to follow both the letter and the spirit of the new law and start locking some of these kids up and getting them into recovery programs. Without those sorts of changes, all of the results we saw this week will be nothing more than the latest collection of words on paper.