A controversial Maryland law sends youth as young as 14 to adult courts when they are accused of one of 33 different crimes, ranging from misdemeanor gun possession to murder. State lawmakers are considering changing that law to significantly reduce the number of juveniles charged as adults.
At a hearing Wednesday in the House Judiciary Committee, advocates made a case for the change in terms lawmakers could understand.
“Let's talk about the money,” state Public Defender Natasha Dartigue told the committee. “The bill saves Maryland millions of dollars.”
Dartigue said the bill would reduce the Office of the Public Defender’s contractual expenses by about $1.4 million and the office’s workload by about $2.6 million. She also highlighted estimates by the Department of Juvenile Services that that agency would save about $12.3 million.
An analysis by the Department of Legislative Services put DJS's cost savings at $17 million in the first full year the change is in effect, if it passes.
Many of those cost savings are the result of shifting cases from the adult court system to the juvenile court, whose processes are faster, said Kimber Watts, chief of the Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s forensic mental health division and a longtime juvenile defender.
When a minor is charged as an adult, the case first goes to the district court, she explained. Then the law allows 15 days for the state’s attorney to bring charges or for the youth to have a probable cause hearing.
“From there, there’s a 180-day time limit once they get into circuit court,” she said. “When you look at the cost, that’s where the cost is coming in.”
She said it costs DJS about $1,000 a day to house someone, so 15 days before prosecutors decide whether to bring charges is $15,000 while the teen waits. Then on average another 147 days go by before the teen has a hearing that decides whether they stay in adult court or move to juvenile court. That’s another $147,000 per teen.
“We are paying more money, taking longer times to end cases, and we are getting worse public safety outcomes,” said Del. Karen Toles, the House sponsor of the bill.
Decades of research show that youth are more likely to reoffend when charged as adults.
Maryland’s controversial law automatically charging certain youth as adults sends several hundred teens — almost all of them Black boys — to adult courts each year. Lawmakers’ and advocates’ efforts to change that law have failed repeatedly for more than a decade.
Toles said this year’s version would lead to most, but not all, cases involving juvenile defendants starting in juvenile court.
“It is a narrowly tailored approach, a pared-down approach that will begin to move the needle in the right direction for certain charges,” Toles said, of her bill.
First- and second-degree murder, rape and carjacking are among the charges that would still land teens automatically in adult court under her bill.
And even if the bill passes, prosecutors would be able to ask a judge to move specific cases from juvenile court to adult court.
The Public Defender’s Office submitted an amendment that would instead end all automatic charging of juveniles as adults.
However, prosecutors oppose making any change.
Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey said that although research shows that the rehabilitative programming available in the juvenile justice system helps lower the likelihood youth reoffend, that research doesn’t hold true with an under-resourced Department of Juvenile Services.
“Every day we are seeing juveniles shuffled through the system, not obtaining the services they need, and being shuffled right back out while they’re awaiting services,” she said. We are doing crime victims a disservice, but we're also doing these offenders a disservice.”
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger also questioned claims about cost savings. He suggested defense attorneys will ask for evaluations and hearings that delay the court process in the juvenile court.
“All this thing that you hear about, ‘We’re going to save $16 million,’ I think it’s going to be a break even,” he said.
