BALTIMORE — It’s the middle of the night in North Baltimore on New Year’s Eve. Three kids - two ten-year-olds, and a seven-year-old - are out of their beds. They’re caught on camera breaking into and stealing from a business. Under current law, including the new juvenile justice bill that just passed the Maryland General Assembly last week, they’re too young to be charged with a crime, with a few exceptions. Burglary isn’t one of those exceptions.
So what’s a Baltimore police officer to do? In this case - the detective called the State’s Attorney’s Office, and asked.
“So we've been told by staff at DJS and other legislators that we should pursue CINS petitions in instances like that. So we have attempted to do that,” Deputy State’s Attorney Angela Galeano said.
A “CINS” petition stands for a “Child in Need of Supervision.” According to Department of Juvenile Services policy, CINS petitions are to be filed for a child who regularly cannot be controlled by their parents, or acts in a way that’s dangerous to themselves or others. It was also designed to address offenses that are only applicable to kids - like running away, skipping school, or underage drinking.
“Well those aren't generally the offenses that law enforcement witness this age group committing,” Galeano said. "We know for a fact that individuals in this age group have been stealing cars. They've been breaking into businesses, they've been breaking into homes, they've been committing assaults of various degrees.”
Galeano says right now, DJS is not accepting CINS petitions for those crimes. In the case of the two 10 year-olds and the 7 year-old who burgalarized a business, the BPD officer was turned away by DJS intake.
"If that instance doesn't say that that 7 year-old needs services, then I don't know what does," Galeano said.
According to the State’s Attorney’s Office, the detective was told DJS “cannot file the petition based on a police report."
“Right now what we can tell you for a fact is if a law enforcement officer or anyone else pursues a CINS petition purely because an individual has committed a criminal offense, those petitions are not being processed,” Galeano said.
There’s a difference between CINS petitions, and CINS complaints. Anyone can file a complaint - a family member, law enforcement, anyone. It’s up to DJS how to proceed. According to DJS, the intake officer has the following options:
- Decline the CINS complaint. DJS may still refer the youth to services as appropriate
- Resolve the complaint and refer the youth to appropriate services
- Enter into a Pre-court Supervision Agreement where the youth and family agree to certain conditions, including participation in treatment services, without court involvement
- File a petition with the juvenile court if there has been a failure of community-based interventions and the most appropriate service is only available through juvenile court.
“Generally our understanding is that they have a conversation with the parent to determine whether they’re having challenges with their child," Galeano said. "What can DJS do to assist you with the challenges - perhaps the parent works odd hours and isn’t able to provide adequate supervision; perhaps the parent has tried several different strategies, and needs assistance and additional resources to help them be more successful with their children. There are a lot of different avenues that can be explored. But our biggest challenge is that what we’re finding is they’re not even being consistent enough in implementing these policies to explore those things for the parents."
If family does not accept the help, and DJS disagrees with that decision, the department can move to filing a formal petition with the court.
So ultimately, only DJS has the ability to file a formal petition that would involve court-mandated supervision for the child. In the case of that New Year’s Eve burglary, DJS didn’t even take the complaint from the BPD officer.
According to the State's Attorney's office, "It was further relayed that, when initiating a CINS petition, the person seeking the petition needs to have information about child’s living conditions, school attendance, school behavior, interactions with the school principal, etc."
Galeano said, "[The BPD officer] was not assigned to the school that these children are attending. So how is that police officer to know whether or not the child has been going to school, really anything about the child, unless that officer is assigned to that particular district, familiar with the block, familiar with their family.”
“It seems like the processes, as stated by law, were not followed in which this child," Natasha Khalfani, Assistant Public Defender in the Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s Parental Defense Division, said. "At the very least, the complaint should have been taken and DJS should’ve used the 25 days to investigate, get in contact with the parents."
Khalfani says, in general, CINS petitions are a preferable alternative to incarceration.
“When we get children, especially young children, involved in the criminal system, it often exacerbates their behavior and not decreases it. So with a CINS petition, the label of criminal or delinquent is not there. And it does a better job of keeping them out of the criminal system.”
But for kids who are too young to be charged with many crimes anyway, CINS complaints and petitions aren’t even an alternative. They’re often the only option available for holding kids accountable.
Last week, the legislature passed a new juvenile justice bill. It includes a change to the CINS petition process. It’s now mandatory for DJS to file a petition for kids who are under 13, who are accused of stealing a car. The bill also expands the juvenile court’s jurisdiction to include children who are at least 10 years old. Previously, children needed to be 13-years-old to be charged with most crimes. Now, kids who are at least 10 who are alleged to have committed a firearm offense, animal cruelty, or a third-degree sex offense, can be charged.
But these changes wouldn’t have made a difference in the New Year’s Eve burglary case.
The police officer was told to contact the Department of Social Services. DSS later told the State’s Attorney’s Office - they wouldn’t have been able to help either. Does any agency have jurisdiction over a 7-year-old who’s breaking into businesses in the middle of the night? That’s the question the State’s Attorney’s office has right now. Deptuy Galeano says BPD officers feel like their hands are tied.
"We also cannot forget about the people who are being terrorized in the city. People are living in fear, because they are hearing that children are running around stealing cars, and that's a real fear. We know that's a reality," Galeano said.
The Public Defender's office was opposed to the bill amendment that makes it mandatory for DJS to file CINS petitions for kids older than 13 who commit car theft. Khalfani said: “The problem with that is they’re requiring a CINS petition verus a CINS complaint. So you’re taking away DJS’ discretion as to whether this child can be serviced without court involvement. We would always prefer, and we would prefer the language in the bill to require a CINS complaint, and that way DJS can investigate the situation, talk to the child, talk to the family, really determine what’s going on with that family. […] Any involvement with the court that the child has is harmful. So a complaint would just allow DJS to do its due diligence and only forward those cases in which a child needs that extra supervision and attention from the court."
In the New Year's Eve burglary, the State's Attorney's Office ended up appealing DJS' decision to decline the complaint.
"After some pushback from our office, they [DJS] confirmed they met with the family and resources were being implemented through the school that the children attend - which is great, but what we found in following this instance step by step, none of those things would've been done if there wasn't that additional follow-up: that Baltimore police officer who took the time to go to the school, talk to the principal, identify who the parent was, and that detective actually met with the family and the principal, the school resource officer. We think all of those things are great solutions to the challenges that we're seeing. Unfortunately, it appears that's not happening in every case."
WMAR-2 News did reach out to DJS for comment; we are waiting to hear back.