In adult jails across Maryland, minors spend up to 23 hours a day in isolation, go without schooling, and in some cases avoid showering for the fear of being raped. Some are also forced to spend more than a year in adult jail before they see their day in court.
There are federal standards to protect youth from conditions like these. But in recent years Maryland has violated the criteria more frequently than any other state. The failures are so numerous that the federal government has characterized Maryland as an “outlier” and removed it from a national analysis assessing compliance.
Maryland law requires minors as young as 14 to be charged as adults for certain crimes, and most go to an adult jail when they are arrested.
Erin Seagears, a youth defender in Anne Arundel County, said she sees “terrified children” when she visits her clients in the jails.
“I see, literally, the uniforms hanging off their shoulder, because they’re adult uniforms on children,” she said. “That first meeting, especially, it’s just me sitting there with sobbing children.”
The violations are expected to cost the state “upwards of $500,000” in federal funding over the next two years, according to a state legislator looking to change state law.
According to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, a minor may not spend more than six hours in an adult detention center without a judge’s approval. The law also requires detention facilities to separate adults and minors so neither group can see or hear the other, a rule known as “sight and sound” separation. While the rule is meant to protect minors, it has also forced some to spend entire days in de facto solitary confinement.
The U.S. Department of Justice releases an annual threshold for the acceptable number of violations a state can incur before losing federal funding. Maryland’s violations were seven times greater than the threshold, according to a report by a state advisory group that oversees compliance.
This is the first year the federal government has enforced the law since it was updated in 2018. Only Wyoming and Texas have opted not to participate, according to a Justice Department report.
Maryland lawmakers are considering a measure that would bring the state into compliance with these rules by prohibiting minors from being held in adult jails.
Read/listen to the full story.
This story was produced with APM Reports as part of the Public Media Accountability Initiative, which supports investigative reporting at local media outlets around the country.