A bill to limit the automatic charging of youths as adults is trying its hand again in the Maryland General Assembly, receiving its first committee hearing on Wednesday.
Sponsored by Sen. Will Smith (D-Montgomery County), SB0323, known as the Youth Charging Reform Act, would significantly reduce the list of offenses that could qualify a youth to be tried as an adult.
Currently, children aged 14 and older in Maryland can be charged as adults for first-degree murder and rape charges — at 16 or older, the list of quantifiable crimes for automatic charging expands to 33.
Smith is proposing maintaining automatic charging for the most serious crimes, but his bill would give a judge discretion over 11 of the remaining offenses, like robbery, assault and firearm possession.
The judge would review the facts of a case and decide if the teen should be tried as a juvenile or an adult.
“When you think about two parallel paths of evaluation here, I think one is the racial justice piece, and then I think one [is] the technocrat inside of you, which is the judicial efficiency, the cost savings and the better public safety outcomes,” Sen. Smith said during his testimony. “If one doesn't move you to advance this bill or to go in favor of this bill, perhaps the other will.”
Contrary to last year’s version of the bill, Smith opted to retain a section in Maryland law that disqualifies a child from a judge’s discretion if they have been previously convicted as an adult of a felony and commit another alleged crime that would be a felony if committed by an adult.
Attorney General Anthony Brown testified in favor of the bill, noting the impact of automatic charging falls disproportionately on Black children.
“While Black children make up only 31 percent of Maryland's population, our children represent 81 percent of those charged as adults between 2021 and 2023, making them more than seven times as likely to be charged as adults as their white counterparts or peers,” Brown said.
Acting Secretary of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) Betsy Fox Tolentino is also supportive of the legislation.
She told committee members that the bill would not shift a new population into DJS, explaining roughly 85 percent of youth automatically sent to the adult justice system either have their cases dismissed or are sent back to the juvenile system.
“We are already serving this population at the Department of Juvenile Services. The overwhelming majority of youth charged with the offenses addressed by this bill are ultimately returned to DJS custody. We supervise them safely in residential facilities and in the community,” Tolentino said.
But Pam Chung, the juvenile division chief for the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, argues DJS does not have the resources to take on an influx of juvenile cases.
“DJS is unable to meet the needs of the youth currently under their supervision. The agency is unable to support the idealism behind this bill,” Chung said. “It would also strain the Office of the Public Defender, who already in Baltimore City is unable to provide representation in a timely manner to youth.”
Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue strongly supports ending automatic charging, refuting that her office does not have the resources to carry out the change.
Tolentino was appointed by Gov. Wes Moore to lead DJS in June, and she said she has already made immense strides in bolstering the office’s services and staffing.
“Yes, we can implement this. We can operationalize this piece of legislation. And really the proof is the fact that I'm doing it now, and I'm doing it with extra barriers, less efficiency, less opportunity to intervene when it really matters,” she said.
The Maryland State's Attorneys Association stands as the bill’s strongest opponent, but Smith does not find the attorneys’ arguments to be persuasive.
“As a policy matter, I have struggled to understand why there's so much opposition to this iteration of the bill. Honestly, I am not a bleeding heart on all this stuff, I'm just trying to follow the information and make an informed decision,” he said.
The bill was not eligible for traditional public comment due to its prior introduction last year, but testimony and committee questions lasted roughly an hour and a half.
The House version of the bill is scheduled to be heard next week.
The committee also heard SB0296, which would make it illegal for arrested children to be detained in an adult detention facility without a separate, secure juvenile detention area with limited exceptions.
Sen. Sara Love (D-Montgomery County), the bill’s sponsor, explained federal law requires a child held in an adult facility to be separated by sight and sound from adults, which often means juveniles are placed in isolation.
“They do not get schooling, they do not get programming, they do not get mental health services, nothing. They do not get the services they need,” Love said. “We are so far out of compliance that federal data doesn't even include Maryland, because we would so skew the results.”
Maryland stands to lose an estimated $2 million in federal funds over the next three years because of its repeated noncompliance.
While committee members — and DJS itself via written testimony — raised concerns over lack of juvenile housing centers within the state, proponents of the bill said the Baltimore Youth Detention Center could take on all juvenile statewide intake.
Love also said if the Youth Charging Reform Act was enacted, it would free up more space in juvenile centers because youths charged as adults are often waiting for transfers under the current system.
The House version of the bill is scheduled to be heard on Thursday.
Both bills were not voted on by the committee on Wednesday, but they will need a favorable report to head to the full Senate for consideration.
