Maryland will now reduce penalties for many juvenile criminals despite the state reeling from disproportionately high youth crime.
Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed the Youth Charging Reform Act on Tuesday, greatly expanding the crimes to be handled by juvenile court rather than the harsher adult justice system. Maryland has grappled with youth incarceration rates well above national averages for years, including particularly harsh spikes in highly populated areas such as Baltimore, according to multiple reports and government data.
Moore’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Maryland’s juvenile courts will now have jurisdiction over child defendants between 14 and 16 who are charged with offenses that result in life sentences under the Democrat-backed law, which takes effect in October. Underage arrestees at least 16 years old who are charged with certain abduction, kidnapping, robbery, assault, gun and sex offenses will also automatically face the juvenile system. Those in the 16-or-older group charged with life-sentence crimes will still be prosecuted in adult court.
The state already has a system allowing adult courts to send severe cases to juvenile court under certain conditions, including when the option is deemed to be “in the interest of the child or society,” according to Maryland’s Department of Legislative Services.
Maryland’s child incarceration rate in fiscal year 2023 was 93.26 per 100,000, more than six times the federal standard, and increased to 119.59 the following fiscal year, WYPR News reported. The state’s percentage of inmates jailed for underage crimes was also twice the national average, according to a September 2023 report from the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services.
The new law brings Maryland’s system closer to that of neighboring Washington, D.C., which prosecutes many violent and non-violent youth crimes outside of adult court unless the district’s federal prosecutor steps in. D.C. also suffers from abnormally high youth crime.
Maryland’s Department of Legislative Services praised Moore’s bill in a “Racial Equity Impact Statement” in April, saying it will “significantly reduce the likelihood of harsher punitive outcomes” and keep more non-white people out of jail.
“Youth of color will be positively impacted to a much greater extent due to their large overrepresentation in the group of youth charged as adults,” the department said.
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