State's Attorney weighs in on juvenile crime, changes coming with new law Nov. 1

BALTIMORE — In the span of two hours one morning last week, Baltimore Police say a couple of teenagers stole or tried to steal three cars. Not 24 hours later, they added another carjacking and a crash to their spree. 

When the 16 and 14 year-old boys were arrested, BPD realized this wasn’t their first run-in with the pair.

The 16-year-old had been arrested for stealing a car back in June. After he was caught for the same thing just a few months later, DJS, the Department of Juvenile Services, still decided to let him go home to his parents. 

The 14-year-old had been arrested four times this year - for armed robbery, car thefts, and assault. He was on GPS monitoring during last week’s series of carjackings. This time, DJS detained him. 

But BPD says when officers request a juvenile be detained, it only actually happens about 20 to 30 percent of the time. 

“And that’s frustrating for the police, frustrating for the community, because you see the turnstile, the same young people over and over and over again," Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates said.

WMAR-2 News filmed that interview with Bates on Thursday. Later that night, a 66-year-old man was the victim of a violent assault and robbery in Butchers Hill. BPD was able to track down two of the suspects - an 18-year-old who was detained and charged with attempted murder, and a 15-year-old, who was let go, despite BPD requesting the juvenile be detained. Both had prior arrests.

Here's what the victim had to say in an interview with WMAR on Monday: "I was beaten to a pulp. I’m just so angry when I found out they had caught two of them and the arresting officer had specifically said not to release the 15-year-old, and DJS just released him anyway, within hours."

But after outrage from both neighbors and lawmakers, on Tuesday afternoonBates announced attempted murder charges against that 15 year-old. He'll be charged as an adult.

"While we did not make this decision lightly, the gravity of the alleged crime and the threat to public safety require us to act. Violence of this nature has no place in our community, and we remain committed to ensuring bright futures for our young people while recognizing the need for accountability and justice for the victims," Bates said. "Let me be explicitly clear: if you or your companions decide to attack, stomp on, or slam someone's head in Baltimore, then my office will handle it with the seriousness it deserves."

Bates blamed the DJS intake officers for not looking at all of the evidence, only the charge of robbery, before letting the teen go.

"If I’m not mistaken, I wasn’t there, but if I’m not mistaken, they [BPD] wrote robbery. However, the frustration is, in the statement of facts that everybody is supposed to read, it clearly breaks down the facts that would allege that it was more a little bit than a robbery. It talks about a gun and talks about some of the injuries that the victim received."

Controversy over the release of juvenile suspects after a violent crime has become a familiar story over the last two years, after juvenile justice reforms were passed in 2022 that placed an emphasis on protecting the young offenders.

But in a month from now, a new juvenile crime law goes into effect, that will undo some of those reforms. Here are some of the big changes that could have made difference in the recent carjacking and assault cases:

If a juvenile on GPS monitoring runs away, DJS must report it to the court, the state’s attorney’s office, and the child’s attorney within 24 hours. Previously, it was up to a DJS officer’s discretion. If a child didn’t commit a crime while they were AWOL, for example, DJS might not report the violation.

"Then they’re [the juvenile] like, I can leave and nothing happens to me. Then they tell their other friend, you know what, I left for three days and no one did anything to me," Bates explained.

Also under the new law, if police ask DJS to detain a juvenile suspect, DJS has 48 hours to honor the request. Otherwise, the case will go before a judge, and they’ll decide what to do.

The new law also mandates that if a child under 13 is charged with a car theft, DJS must authorize the filing of a Child in Need of Supervision (CINS) petition.

“Which then makes sure the court is involved," Bates explained. "Because we’re finding younger and younger people are getting involved with some of the criminal activity at a younger age. We don’t want to go ahead and “put them in jail” at such a young age, but if you give them the CINS process, then now they have the opportunity to have those resources and services to divert them away from the life they’re going towards.”

We covered issues with CINS petitions earlier this year.

Starting November 1, DJS has to enforce these changes, by law. But the department is also making some policy changes on its own.

Now, juveniles who are brought to DJS after a violent felony but are released, will have to be placed on GPS monitoring. That was not a requirement before. Also, juveniles who commit a violent felony while already on GPS monitoring, will automatically be detained when brought to DJS.

Bates was pleased with the announcement.

“Last night the Governor and I talked for about 35-40 minutes going over a number of policies and the policy changes that DJS is making. I definitely believe it’s a step in the right direction, but we got a long way to go.”

Mayor Brandon Scott also applauded the decision:

“The policy changes announced by Governor Moore’s administration today are simple, common-sense adjustments that will better serve everyone – including Baltimore’s residents, our law enforcement officers diligently trying to responsibly do their jobs, and the young people themselves who find they are on the wrong path. I want to thank Governor Moore for hearing our concerns on this area, listening to us outlining the problems, and responsibly making adjustments that will have a real impact. This is what true partnership and collaboration on public safety in Maryland – and particularly Baltimore – is able to look like."

Bates says he feels like his office and DJS are finally on the same page, something that couldn’t necessarily be said at the start of the year, when the tension between the two agencies came to a headat a Baltimore town hall. Catharine Rosenblatt, head of the juvenile division in the State’s Attorney’s Office, railed against how DJS acts as the "gatekeeper" of all juvenile cases, and the agency wasn't forwarding all of the cases to her that it should have been forwarding.

A source of some of that miscommunication was identified in June - a typo. Here's how a BPD spokesperson described what happened:

"BPD learned that we were not receiving intake decisions based on referrals sent to the Department of Juvenile Services. Upon further review, we learned that we were given an incorrect email address to send the referrals cases to. BPD did not get a bounce-back email stemming from the incorrect email. It was discovered in June that the email provided by DJS was incorrect. DJS provided an updated email address, and BPD updated all the required forms and provided agency wide notification of the correct DJS email."

Bates said the issue with the incorrect email address led to a "humongous backlog," and the agencies are all playing catch-up now.

Tuesday afternoon, the Joint Republican Caucus sent a letter to Governor Moore, calling for the immediate removal of DJS Secretary Vincent Schiraldi.