Juvenile justice advocates said Tuesday the system of state-funded institutions and reform programs for juvenile offenders has become too politicized and called for more independence for the department.
Acting Deputy Public Defender Michael Morrissette said the Department of Juvenile Services, currently a Cabinet-level agency, should be removed from the governor?s Cabinet and made an independent agency with an appointed director.
“We?ve been working on this for decades and the secretary does not have the ability to correct the far-reaching problems of the department,” Morrissette said. As a Cabinet agency, the department secretary serves at the pleasure of the governor and is replaced at the beginning of each new administration.
Rick Abbruzzese, spokesman for Gov. Martin O?Malley, said the administration would consider that suggestion, but said “the primary focus right now is getting a professional and competent administrator in that position to lead the agency and move the agency forward.”
O?Malley has not yet named a new juvenile services secretary.
The briefing on juvenile justice issues for the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee came almost one week after the death of a 17-year-old student during a struggle with staff members at Bowling Brook Preparatory School in Carroll County. The private school is under contract with the state to educate juvenile offenders committed to the program by the courts.
Jim McComb, executive director of the Maryland Association of Resources for Families and Youth, asked the Senate committee to audit how the state?s laws on juvenile services are being enforced.
