Allegations of sexual abuse between youths in state custody. Complaints of roaches and mice crawling on students’ beds, and reports of expired and undercooked food.
Those were just some of the findings in a 49-page report by the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit on the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services that lays out some of the problems at the long-troubled agency in the greatest detail to date, a report greeted with concern and dismay by advocates and lawmakers.
“It’s very outraging,” said Aubrey Edwards-Luce, the executive director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children, and the Courts at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel) called the report “shocking and extremely disappointing.”
“We’re talking about children,” said Bartlett, the vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee. “I thought at least some of the basic needs of the children were being taken care of. I was shocked and disappointed to learn that they aren’t.”
The report, published July 28, detailed wide-ranging health and safety issues at facilities operated by the Department of Juvenile Services. The report covers the first six months of the year, during which former Secretary Vincent Schiraldi oversaw the agency.
Acting Secretary Betsy Fox Tolentino, who took over in mid-June, said in a written response to the report that she implemented “critical leadership changes in the DJS Residential Services Unit.” Those include visiting facilities across the state to “observe conditions firsthand and speak directly with frontline staff” and reviewing operational and staffing challenges.
An agency spokesperson said that the office’s previous deputy secretary of residential services, executive director of residential services and director of behavioral health left the agency last week following the report.
Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready (R-Frederick and Carroll) said the report “confirmed” state Republicans’ position that there were longstanding leadership issues under Schiraldi.
“Concerns for safety, food quality issues … I don’t understand how this could have gone on for so long,” he said.
Ready noted that while the findings in the recent report were alarming, it’s not the only report in recent years that brought Schiraldi’s time as secretary under fire. In May, for example, the agency was the subject of a lengthy report from state auditors who said the department failed to consistently ensure that criminal background checks were completed for every contractor working at state juvenile detention centers and treatment facilities.
But Edwards-Luce said she was not so sure that the problems identified in the report can be tied solely to Schiraldi’s time as secretary, arguing that there are longstanding issues in how the state handles youths in need of behavioral interventions.
“Atrocities abound, unfortunately,” she said.
Olinda Moyd, a member of the state’s Correctional Ombudsman Advisory Board, said the report provides specific details that haven’t been offered in previous documents. The Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit is part of the Office of the Correctional Ombudsman.
“I think we have gotten used to getting reports that are very cursory and don’t really provide the detail that we need to really know what’s happening inside these institutions,” said Moyd, director of the Decarceration and Re-Entry Clinic at the American University Washington College of Law. “I’m all about transparency.”
Moyd and other advocates helped get a bill signed into law last year creating the Office of Correctional Ombudsman, which conducts independent reviews and assessment of various programs administrated by the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.
As part of the legislation sponsored by Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County), the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit was moved out of the attorney general’s office and under the ombudsman’s control.
One main reason for the push for independent oversight stemmed from various problems within the juvenile justice system. Most of the blame from Republican lawmakers was directed at Schiraldi, who was appointed by Gov. Wes Moore (D) in February 2023. Schiraldi resigned June 9 of this year.
“This report seeks to identify concrete, actionable changes that can enhance daily operations, programming, treatment, and safety for both staff and youth, while also improving protections for youth in DJS operated and licensed facilities,” Ombudsman Yvonne Briley-Wilson in the introduction to the report.
Briley-Wilson did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Bartlett said the report will help her committee assess what must be done to improve the overall well-being of children in the juvenile justice system.
“I thought the ombudsman did an excellent job of being thorough and giving specific examples that we needed. That’s the information we need as legislators to be able to conduct the oversight that we need to do,” she said. “While it was shocking and disappointing, it was still very helpful for the future.”
