By Sophie Foster
Opinion Editor
Maryland’s haphazard attempts to approach juvenile justice reform are once again at the legislative forefront, this time with pertinent alterations made to the bill.
According to previous Elm coverage, the original bill struggled to gain footing in February, particularly because organizations like the NAACP argued “that it fails to adequately respond to the causes at the core of youth crime.”
The new proposal, unfortunately, is not much better, but stands a strong chance of making its way into law nonetheless. Recently, it passed through the Maryland Senate with a 43 to 2 vote, and would, if signed into law, grant the Department of Juvenile Services permission to charge children between the ages of 10 and 12 with offenses like gun possession and automobile theft, according to CBS News.
Aptly titled the Juvenile Law Reform Bill, the primary ambition, according to CBS News, is to “hold juveniles and the system accountable by expanding probation for youth and oversight and data collection in the justice system.”
The key element of that goal that makes it absurd is the notion that juveniles should be “held accountable” in this way to begin with.
A reasonable parent does not punish a toddler misbehaving by grounding them, or a middle schooler by taking away their driving privileges, regardless of the misbehavior in question. These punishments are not reasonably conducive to a child of that age’s experience and maturity, and it is, of course, unlikely the child would learn much from it. Why, then, would anyone presume a 10-to-12-year-old belongs in the criminal justice system?
Also important to note is that the Department of Juvenile Services noted a decline in complaints made about and rearrests of youth under 13, according to Maryland Matters. This makes it even more confounding that the topic is even up for legislative debate at all. In part, it seems determined to fix a problem the state does not really have.
While some elements of the bill have potential for positive impact, such as the requirement for school officials to educate child sex offenders separately, its focus on egregious punishment disguised as rehabilitation is unacceptable and does not solve a single issue lawmakers supposedly want addressed.
According to WBAL, a report from the Maryland Youth Justice Coalition pushing back on the legislation claims that “80% of juvenile offenders who went to jail were rearrested within 2-3 years.”
In other words: jail is not a rehabilitative measure.
Moreover, according to advocate Yanet Amanuel for WBAL, “Children are three times more likely to make false confessions than adults. More than one third of people who have been exonerated from past convictions were children at the time of their alleged offense.”
All of this intertwined is concerning and points the finger not at the children committing these crimes, but at the justice system that fails to appropriately respond to them. Alternative models of “community investment” would more adequately address high poverty rates and combat crime statistics in Maryland without further contributing to the state’s over-policing problem, according to T. Shekhinah Braveheart and Ryan King of the Justice Policy Institute for the Real News Network.
According to WBAL, state lawmakers claim to be “examining how to fix what they call a broken system.” While correct about the system, these lawmakers seem to be confused as to what, exactly, needs fixing.
No problem’s best solution is incarcerating children.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Photo caption: Maryland courthouses may experience extreme shifts in practices related to juveniles.