Andrew Zaragoza was 16 years old when he went to the Harford County Detention Center. He had killed his mother — he said it was self defense after she stabbed him in the chest, though the jury ultimately found him guilty of second-degree murder.
Zaragoza’s arrest in August 2017 followed years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse by his mother. According to Zaragoza’s public defender, Kimber Watts, Child Protective Services visited his home multiple times, including just one month before he killed his mother. Speaking at an event Wednesday, Watts said there were numerous opportunities for someone from the state to intervene — such as when his father died of a drug overdose in 2016, or when his uncle died of a drug overdose in his house in 2015 — but no one stepped in.
The trauma Zaragoza experienced is common among Maryland adults incarcerated for crimes they committed as children, according to a new report by the advocacy group Human Rights for Kids. The group received survey responses from 124 people incarcerated in Maryland prisons since childhood. Of those, nearly 70% reported having at least six Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, before being locked up.
More than 70% of those surveyed said they were physically abused, and nearly 40% were sexually abused. On average, those surveyed said they were first abused at 6 years old.
Other ACEs among those surveyed included witnessing domestic violence, which 50% of survey respondents reported experiencing, and the incarceration of a household member, which roughly 70% of survey respondents said they experienced.
“Do we want to lock these kids up because of our own failure to protect them in the first place, or do we want to offer them something many of them have never had in their own lives, which is love and compassion and the services they need to heal from that trauma, and to be held accountable in a trauma-informed and age-appropriate way?” asked James Dold, founder and CEO of Human Rights for Kids.
Children who experience four or more ACEs are at higher risk for health problems such as heart disease, as well as depression, drug addiction, and ending up in the justice system.
“But trauma is treatable,” said Casi O’Neill, a social worker with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s juvenile division. “It's hugely important that we intervene and intervene as soon as we can, intervene early, so that we can interrupt the trauma, interrupt that whole pattern of negative outcomes that can cascade after that.”
In its report, Human Rights for Kids advocates for courts to consider ACEs and minors’ trauma histories when deciding whether to charge them as adults, as well as when setting sentences in the adult court system. It also urges the state to ban the housing of children in adult jails and prisons, which offer little to no mental health services.
Del. Sandy Bartlett, vice chair of the House of Delegates Judiciary Committee, said a ban on confining children in adult jails is something she plans to push for during the legislative session that begins in January.
Catching abuse and other trauma and treating it early is key for reducing juvenile crime, said Dold.
“Trauma is driving crime in Maryland amongst juvenile offenders,” he said. “If we really want to address crime, we need to be able to identify trauma, get those kids treatment and services, and like I said, hold them accountable in an age-appropriate and trauma-informed way.”
