BALTIMORE — A renewed push to end automatically charging minors as adults for certain crimes in Maryland has reinvigorated a longstanding debate on the practice.

On one side are advocates for criminal justice reform, like the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, who say charging youths as adults is a bad practice that increases criminal behavior and reduces public safety.

“The automatic charging process disproportionately affects Black and Brown children, exposing them to unsafe and traumatic experiences within the justice system,” said Robin Salter, the public defender’s regional director of youth defense, in a statement ahead of a rally at Lawyer’s Mall in Annapolis on Thursday.

“To think,” she continued, “if prison is used as a punishment system for adults, then placing children — who are still developing mentally, physically, and emotionally — in the adult system is purely torturous. This is a criminal justice and human rights issue. Ending automatic charging of children as adults is the right thing to do in Maryland.”

On the other side are the state’s prosecutors.

“While I understand their call, I cannot support or agree with the idea of automatic charging of all juvenile offenses in juvenile court,” Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson, president of the Maryland State’s Attorney’s Association, said in an interview. “That would create a significant public safety risk and is not in the best interest of the community.”

Maryland law requires anyone 14 or older to be automatically charged as an adult for first-degree murder, first-degree rape and first-degree sex offense.

The list of offenses automatically charged in adult court for minors 16 years or olderincludes second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter; second-degree rape and second- and third-degree sex offense; abduction and kidnapping; carjacking; attempted and actual robbery with a dangerous weapon; first-degree assault and all firearms offenses.

State Sen. Will C. Smith Jr., chair of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, said at a press conference of the Legislative Black Caucus he would introduce legislation to reduce the number of offenses that qualify a minor to be charged as an adult, explaining “some of the more violent offenses will be left out.”

“We can use this as a building block,” said Smith, a Democrat representing Montgomery County. “I deeply believe we need to end the practice of auto charging. I believe that fundamentally. If you start out youths in the youth system, you’re going to save money, you’re going to get better public safety outcomes.”

Gibson, a Democrat, said prosecutors would not even support limiting the number of crimes that qualify minors to be charged as adults automatically, saying starting all cases in juvenile court would lead to delays of up to 25 days to arrest a minor for even the most serious crime, like murder.

“There already is a process in place to address the concern of the youth who really does belong in the juvenile system,” Gibson added.

Judges have to consider several factors when deciding whether to transfer the case of a minor charged as an adult to juvenile court: the youth’s age, their mental and physical condition, their willingness to receive treatment, the nature of the crimes and public safety. A recent appeals court decision put a greater emphasis on the child’s amenability to services.

Maryland’s juvenile court system differs from the adult system in several ways. Cases go to trial quicker — typically within six months of charging. Guilty findings don’t mar a child’s record when they become an adult. Sentences focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment, with programs tailored to individual youths. With no set timelines for penalties, the juvenile system’s jurisdiction ends when a person turns 21.

Gibson cited concerns over the juvenile services agency’s ability to handle its current caseload of children.

“DJS would need to be performing at a B+ level,” Gibson said. “I’m not going to put a grade on it, but it’s not there. Not even close.” He added: “You can’t handle the robbery kid and you want the murder kid? You can’t handle the trespassing kid and you want the rape kid?”

Advocates, however, say the system for charging children as adults is broken.

“The current law and practice just doesn’t work,” said Heather Warnken, director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Baltimore School of Law, in an interview. “It doesn’t work for efficiency. It doesn’t work for public safety. It doesn’t work for kids.”

Warnken described the state as a national outlier when it comes to automatically charging children as adults.

“Maryland sends more youth to adult court automatically without input from a judge than any other state per capita other than Alabama,” she said.

According to the Maryland Youth Justice Coalition, more than 80% of minors charged as adults are Black. That organization also found that more than 87% of cases where youths were charged as adults between 2017 and 2019 did not end in adult criminal sentences.

In a statement, the youth justice coalition said it was continuing its 12-year quest to end automatic charging of children, describing the organization as “encouraged to see strong support from the Legislative Black Caucus and recognition from legislators that keeping children out of the adult criminal legal system is better for both community safety and children who have been charged with an alleged crime.”

Studies have found that youths convicted as adults reoffend at a much higher rate than those who are tried and adjudicated in juvenile court.

“Prosecuting children in adult court is not achieving its goal of reducing recidivism or making Marylanders safer,” reads a fact sheet from the public defender’s office. “In fact, sentencing children in adult court has generally resulted in increased arrest for subsequent crimes, including violent crime, when compared with those children whose cases were handled in the juvenile justice system.”

The human brain continues to develop into someone’s 20s, according to researchers. With still-developing prefrontal cortexes, young people take risks and experiment; they struggle to understand the long-term consequences of their actions and make decisions without their futures in mind.

“When you’re 16 years old, you put a gun in somebody’s face, carjack them or even worse, shoot them, I’m having trouble understanding how you don’t understand the consequences of your actions,” Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, a Democrat, told The Sun.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, does not support abolishing automatic adult charges for all crimes, said his spokesperson, Jennifer Donelan.

“Consistent with the position that the Attorney General took in 2023, as well as the recommendation of the Maryland Equitable Justice Collaborative (MEJC), the Attorney General supports the limiting of automatic charges for juveniles as adults in adult criminal court and looks forward to working with the Office of the Public Defender and the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland in pursuit of that goal,” Donelan said.

Asked whether Gov. Wes Moore would support legislation to change auto-charging, spokesman Carter Elliott would only say that the Democratic governor generally supports measures that enhance public safety.

“Public safety has always been Governor Moore’s top priority and he will continue to work with the dedicated leaders of the General Assembly, local leaders, law enforcement, and community leaders to make Maryland a safer home for everyone,” Elliott said.

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Baltimore Sun reporter Glynis Kazanjian contributed to this article.

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