Civil Defense

Conditions in Maryland's juvenile facilities are improving, says a new report from the state Attorney General's office - better care for girls, shorter waits for treatment, and fewer violent incidents. Are the improvements sustainable? We ask Nick Moroney, director of the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit.

In the 1950s and early ‘60s, people didn’t worry about  terrorism; they worried about a nuclear bomb and the effort against it wasn’t called homeland security, but civil defense. Why was Baltimore the first East Coast city to stop civil defense?

February 20, 2013

In 1950, the US government created the Federal Civil Defense Administration to prepare American citizens for a nuclear attack. In the early 1960s, civil defense programs began to go out of favor across the country due to pressure from peace groups and the growing sense that they weren't effective. But, Eric Singer, a lecturer at the University of Baltimore, says that's not why it ended in Baltimore. Sheilah talks with him about it.

Web Extra: Other contributors to the movement against civil defense programs

Web Extra: What about Baltimore and its residents caused it to move away from its civil defense program in the way that it did?

Web Extra: The racial dynamics of Baltimore's civil defense program