The House gave initial approval to the Youth Auto Charge Reform Act on Friday, setting it up for final passage in the General Assembly after almost fifteen years of attempts.

The bill would take five crimes off the list of 33 offenses that automatically qualify a juvenile to be charged as an adult in Maryland – the highest number of qualifying offenses in the country.

But this reduction is a severe compromise compared to when the bill was first introduced.

The original language would have struck 22 crimes off the auto charge list and would have ended any adult charging for 14 and 15 year olds.

But in order to obtain the votes to pass, the Senate amended the bill to its current form, which maintains auto charging for 14 and 15 year olds for serious offenses like murder and rape.

If signed into the law, the legislation would give judges discretion over which court 16 and 17 year olds should be tried in for the following crimes: sale or transfer of a firearm, use of a firearm in a drug crime, use of a firearm if convicted of a drug felony, first degree assault and wearing, carrying or transporting a handgun.

The eroded version of the bill passed in the Senate with some bipartisan support, and while members of the House Judiciary Committee expressed interest in reverting the bill back to its original posture, Sen. Will Smith (D-Montgomery County) cautioned against any changes that could set the bill up for newfound failure in the Senate.

The committee headed Smith’s words, but all Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee voted against the bill on Thursday.

Del. Lauren Arikan (R-Harford County) said she believes the five crimes being removed from the list should remain as automatic adult charges.

“Sometimes children act in such an egregious manner that it's okay to make it a little scary,” she said during the committee’s voting session.

“I don't think at a time when we do have a problem with juvenile crime, specifically in many communities, especially east Baltimore County and and Harford, I don't think it sends the right message to the public that we are going to be not taking this as seriously as I think we probably should,” Arikan added.

House Democratic Leader David Moon (D-Montgomery County) argued that children still face significant repercussions within the juvenile justice system.

“The rules facing you in the adult system… are highly inappropriate for a young, uninformed mind that may nevertheless still be made to face very serious consequences, even incarceration, but at least under the auspices of the juvenile system with the appropriate supports that we are attempting to come up with,” he said.

Moon is referring to ongoing work within the legislature to help overhaul the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS), which has been plagued with repeat audit findings and leadership woes.

However, most lawmakers appear confident in the department’s trajectory under the newly appointed DJS secretary, Betsy Fox Tolentino.

Tolentino has been working on improvements within the juvenile justice system since her tenure began in June of last year, and she has insisted that DJS can handle an influx of juvenile cases if this bill is signed into law.

In fact, Tolentino and supportive legislators have frequently pointed to data revealing that 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, meaning DJS is already serving these populations without the additional resources the Youth Charging Reform Act would provide.

But the Maryland States Attorney’s Association has remained unconvinced that DJS has the capacity to handle more cases and rests as a strong opponent of the legislation.

“My sense is that [DJS] want[s] to see if they can handle these youths and actually provide the supervision, ensure that they do not recidivate, but at the same time, provide the services that these young people deserve, and also to reduce the cost that we experience when we put these young people in adult prisons that are not built to accommodate them,” said Del. N. Scott Phillips (D-Baltimore County) in committee.

Phillips, who also chairs the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, is in the camp that wishes the bill would curb youth auto charging further, but he sees the proposed changes as only a starting point.

“While I am not enamored that this is the best piece of legislation we could get out, I think this is the right piece of legislation for where we sit today,” he said.

While Senate Republicans introduced four amendments last month – all of which were rejected – to try to reduce the list of removed crimes even further and create more guardrails, GOP counterparts in the House did not try to amend the bill.

In fact, the bill cleared initial approval without any debate when it was read aloud on the House floor.

Because the House is taking up the Senate’s version of the bill, amendments could still be introduced on third reading, also known as the bill’s final vote.

Gov. Wes Moore previously told WYPR that he would not take a stance on the bill until the General Assembly reached a consensus, but when it comes to justice-involved youth, he said the state needs to “increase opportunities for them to be able to become productive citizens on a lifetime basis.”