Posted on 11/10/25
| News Source: Maryland Matters
A Maryland commission is recommending that the state do away with its practice of automatically charging youth as adults for certain crimes, saying it doesn’t improve public safety and can harm the youth.
The nine-page, heavily footnoted report from a workgroup of the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging and Best Practices is the first recommendation, since the commission was overhauled last year.
“This practice fails to protect communities. Instead, it disproportionately impacts children of color, diverts resources away from critical services for children and families, places children in dangerous environments that more often result in subsequent violent or general criminal behavior,” says the report, which was approved by the commission Oct. 23. “The problem is not one of minor procedural adjustments; it is structural.”
The report, prepared by the commission’s Processes and System Coordination Workgroup, says the state needs to replace the “automatic charging with a system where all cases begin in juvenile court, with judicial discretion to waive youth into adult court when warranted. This reform reflects national best practice and aligns Maryland with federal law.”
Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery), one of four state lawmakers on the 26-member commission, said he plans to reintroduce a bill dealing with the issue.
The bill he proposed during the 2025 General Assembly session would have raised the age at which a youth would be tried as an adult, from 14 to 16. It also would have made those 16 and younger eligible to go to juvenile court if they were charged with crimes, such as first-degree assault, third-degree sex offense and certain offenses involving machine guns.
The commission report found that the state is “significantly” out of compliance with guidelines from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. That office provides states and local jurisdictions with money to fund reentry initiatives for youth who have been incarcerated, treatment for those who may have been abused and other community service programs.
One of the four core requirements to receive funding is “removal of juveniles from adult jails and lockups.”
In fiscal 2024, Maryland youth spent 90 to 180 days in adult jails before being transferred to juvenile court, the report said. OJJDP guidelines say youth must not be held in adult facilities for more than six hours “unless a court finds it is in the interest of justice based on a seven-factor test.” Those factors are age, mental state, charge severity, delinquency history, facility capacity, public safety and any other relevant factors.
In fiscal 2023, the state’s detention rate at adult facilities was 93.2 per 100,000 children, more than six times the federal standard of about 14.7 per 100,000. The following fiscal year, the state’s detention rate rose to 119.5, a 28% increase.
“With the state’s 2024 rate of children detained in adult facilities going far beyond the federal threshold, Maryland stands to lose $350,000 in federal formula grant funding over the next two years due to these violations,” the report said.
Meanwhile, the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy separately submitted a 39-page report to the governor and presiding legislative officers last month. Besides the commission’s process work group, it has four other groups – public education and narrative change; fatality review; prevention; and youth rehabilitation services.
Some of the work conducted by the commission included panel discussions with law enforcement officials and public defenders, research on rehabilitation and mental health services and the lack of dedicated funding for various initiatives and programs.
“As we continue forward, we must never lose sight of the foundational truth I shared in those opening remarks: justice-involved children need what all children need, only more of it, more consistently, and with more compassion,” wrote Andre Davis, chair of the commission and a retired judge of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “They need healing, not handcuffing. Support, not surveillance. Opportunity, not obstacles. And they need us to lead with both urgency and care.”
As for Smith, he’s scheduled to participate in a juvenile justice discussion Thursday at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. The event is entitled “National Roundtable on Prosecuting Youth As Adults: Policy, Research & Practice.”
Also on the panel will be Marc Schindler, former assistant secretary and chief of staff with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. Although the discussion is open to the public, people are asked to register here.
“Young people are experiencing tremendous challenges and accessing opportunity, services and supports,” said Liz Ryan, a former administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention during the Biden administration and co-host of the roundtable, during an interview Friday.
“We need to make sure that young people are getting what they need to grow and thrive,” she said. “Kids should be treated like kids.”