State lawmakers respond to community petition to remove DJS Secretary Schiraldi

Two weeks after this video shocked a neighborhood , showing a group of teenagers stomping on a 66-year-old man's head while he lay flat on the road outside of his home in Butcher’s Hill, neighbors in Southeast Baltimore aren't giving up in their calls for change. They want that change to start at the top. A petition calling for Governor Moore to fire Department of Juvenile Services Secretary Vincent Schiraldi has racked up more than 2,000 signatures.

"And in the time since the petition was started, until yesterday We have had a mother with a toddler in a stroller followed by estimated to be 10 or 11 year olds into a restaurant in Canton. They threatened to kill her and her baby. They waited outside for her. We have had two youths shot and killed in the wee hours of Saturday morning before the Fells Point Festival. There was blood all over Fleet and Broadway, they were shot on Broadway,” Donna Ann Ward told WMAR-2 News.

And earlier this week in Canton, a botched robbery attempt landed a 17-year-old in critical condition after his would-be victim shot him.

In the Butcher’s Hill assault, neighbors, the State’s Attorney, lawmakers, the Mayor, and the Baltimore Police Commissioner all expressed concern after an 18-year-old and 15-year-old were taken into DJS custody, but the 15-year-old was released. After the backlash, he was later charged as an adult for attempted murder.

Calling the crimes "beyond reprehensible," the four state lawmakers who represent Southeast Baltimore agreed with much of what Ward and her neighbors laid out in the petition. But they did not join the call for Secretary Schiraldi to lose his job.

"I don't understand why my state delegates are tiptoeing around this guy. He has a proven failed track record,” Ward said.

Delegates Luke Clippinger, Mark Edelson, Robbyn Lewis, and Senator Bill Ferguson wrote to her:

"Regarding the Secretary's continued performance, the Moore administration is responsible for personnel decisions within DJS and other executive branch agencies, especially at the cabinet level. As we seek to improve the system no matter who is leading the agency, the 46th district delegation will continue holding DJS and all relevant implementing agencies to account until the policy changes made in the 2024 Legislative Session are fully implemented and lead to real public safety for our City’s neighborhoods."

Their full response is at the bottom of this article.

"We've heard nothing from Governor Moore. We've heard nothing from Vinny Schiraldi,” Ward said.

Governor Moore’s office previously declined to comment when WMAR-2 News asked about the petition.

A spokesperson for DJS said:

“The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services can’t comment on individual cases because of state confidentiality laws, but when young people commit crimes, we believe they should be held accountable. That means they will sometimes be arrested, tried and, if convicted, incarcerated. DJS is committed to working with all stakeholders to create safer communities by providing rehabilitative services that hold youth accountable while building on their strengths and support systems.”

"Why have they not come here?” Ward asked. “Why have they not talked to victims? Why are we not having town halls? What is the accountability? Talk is cheap.”

While homicides, violent crime, and property crime are down in Baltimore City from the same time last year, the opposite seems true in the Southeast district.

This year, the Southeast police district has seen a 100% increase in murders, a more than 200% increase in violent crime overall, and a more than 120% increase in property crimes.

However, it is important to note that the boundaries for the districts changed in July of last year. The green on this map shows the old boundaries, and the heavier purple shows what was added within the new boundary, meaning the data is only somewhat comparable.

The state lawmakers point to changes that are on the way November 1st when a new juvenile justice reform law goes into effect - changes they believe will increase accountability for youth, and oversight of DJS:

• Requiring DJS to provide a plan for juveniles who are found to be delinquent of a crime within 25 days and making that delinquency in the juvenile system equivalent to an adult being found guilty of a crime, which will enable those juveniles to get into rehabilitative programming faster;
• Extending the length of time for juveniles to complete programs by lengthening the time they may be required to be on probation;
• Requiring DJS to inform the court, the State’s Attorney, and the juvenile’s attorney if the juvenile is on electronic home monitoring and violates that program by illegally removing the equipment, or going somewhere they’re not supposed to be;
• Requiring DJS to provide the State’s Attorney with case files for them to review if DJS decides not to go forward with charges against a juvenile who is either accused of illegal possession of a firearm, or is a juvenile already under DJS supervision; and
• Expanding the jurisdiction of the Department of Juvenile Services to include those under 13 for certain firearms-related offenses and third-degree sexual offenses.

They also point out new DJS policies announced after public outcry over the attack in Butcher’s Hill and initial release of the 15-year-old suspect. Under those new policies, 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. although it was an option. Also, juveniles who commit a violent felony while already on GPS monitoring, will now automatically be detained when brought to DJS.

"I know a guy who took his ankle monitor off and put it on his dog. I don’t think there is anybody in the world who thinks a juvenile cannot find a workaround to an electronic device," Ward said.

Secretary Schiraldi was appointed to his position by Governor Moore in 2023. That same year, he published a book titled, “Mass Supervision: Probation, Parole, and the Illusion of Safety and Freedom,” in which he lays out a case against the current probation and parole system, advocating for its “incremental abolition.” Schiraldi believes the system is set up to increase incarceration, and calls probation and parole a “recidivism trap.”

He previously served as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation, and commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction. He has written about his experience running Rikers Island , calling it “chaos” that reflects our nation’s racist and destructive fixation on imprisonment.” He said, “It’s Exhibit A for why we need to end mass incarceration.”

Schiraldi is currently named in a lawsuit by a former inmate at Rikers who claims he was brutally beaten by fellow inmates, and blames Schiraldi for allowing policies that permitted supervisors’ "failures to provide adequate monitoring and supervision of inmates."

In a strategic plan published at the start of the year for 2024-2028 , Schiraldi points to data from 2013 to 2022 that shows DJS’s successful “shift from incarceration to community-based programs,” such as a 53% decline in the number of youth in detention facilities, an 86% decline in the number of youth committed to DJS custody, a 25% reduction in the recidivism rate for committed youth, and a 5% drop in the recidivism rate for youth on probation from 2016 to 2020. Data from 2022 and beyond was not mentioned.

Earlier this year, WMAR-2 News submitted a Public Information Act request to DJS to get data on how often juveniles are detained. We found that from 2021 to 2023, the number of juvenile complaints more than doubled in Baltimore. But the percentage of kids who were actually detained went down. 24% of all juvenile complaints led to detention in 2021. In 2023, it was 13%. The average length of stay in a facility also went down - from 23 days to 16 days.

One example of the community-based programs Schiraldi lauded in his strategic plan is Thrive Academy. Created this year, the program aims to provide life coaches to kids in the criminal justice system who are considered most at risk for being either a victim or a perpetrator of gun violence. Thrive Academy recently won the 2024 Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators’ Inspiration Innovation Award. DJS says since the program began, 126 teenagers have participated in the program. Since their participation, 23 of them have been arrested for weapons possession and two have been shot.

Response to Ward's petition from 46th District lawmakers:

Thank you for taking the time to contact our offices regarding the recent and horrific incidents of juvenile crime in Southeast Baltimore. Our community is shaken in the wake of these crimes. We are appalled by the violent robbery on the 200 block of South Madeira Street in the Butchers Hill neighborhood, as well as the attempted carjacking in Brewers Hill. These crimes are beyond reprehensible. We are grateful that the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) successfully apprehended two of the assailants, an 18-year-old and 15-year-old in the Butchers Hill incident.

At the same time, the subsequent release of the 15-year-old by the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) is incredibly concerning. As The Baltimore Banner reported on October 9, the 15-year-old suspect was released to his parents, but neither the police nor DJS saw the video of the terrible assault.

This series of events is reminiscent of what occurred last year near Patterson Park Avenue. That incident was a large part of the impetus for the legislation passed in the 2024 Legislative Session to overhaul our juvenile justice system. Importantly, the legislation advanced last Session was created to not just ensure greater accountability for young people, but also accountability for the operational procedures within DJS.

The reforms to Maryland’s juvenile justice system last Legislative Session not only made changes to laws on juvenile justice, but also made investments in our State budget, and provided stronger organization and oversight of juvenile programs. Some of the changes made to juvenile laws included:

• Requiring DJS to provide a plan for juveniles who are found to be delinquent of a crime within 25 days and making that delinquency in the juvenile system equivalent to an adult being found guilty of a crime, which will enable those juveniles to get into rehabilitative programming faster;
• Extending the length of time for juveniles to complete programs by lengthening the time they may be required to be on probation;
• Requiring DJS to inform the court, the State’s Attorney, and the juvenile’s attorney if the juvenile is on electronic home monitoring and violates that program by illegally removing the equipment, or going somewhere they’re not supposed to be;
• Requiring DJS to provide the State’s Attorney with case files for them to review if DJS decides not to go forward with charges against a juvenile who is either accused of illegal possession of a firearm, or is a juvenile already under DJS supervision; and
• Expanding the jurisdiction of the Department of Juvenile Services to include those under 13 for certain firearms-related offenses and third-degree sexual offenses.

Financially, the General Assembly allocated $43 million for the creation of the Governor’s Office of Children to ensure there is a single entity responsible for tracking youth across multiple agencies. The Fiscal Year 2025 Budget also included $10 million for the creation of the Thrive Academy, a program DJS has created to focus programs and accountability on juveniles found in illegal possession of firearms.

Further, the legislature mandated the establishment of a statewide Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging Best Practices. Importantly, this Commission is housed within the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy as a mechanism for oversight distinct from DJS itself. As mandated by the legislature, DJS must report data regarding young people involved in crimes involving a firearm to the Commission, including what steps the agency took following such incidents. That Commission will hold its first meeting this month.

As recent events demonstrate, DJS, BPD, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, and all those responsible for successful implementation of our juvenile justice laws must coordinate effectively to keep our communities safe. That is why immediately after the incident in Butchers Hill, we were in direct contact with DJS Secretary Schiraldi, BPD Commissioner Worley, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Bates, and community leaders.

We will continue to work with these stakeholders to identify the points of failure in the processes and procedures that allowed the 15-year-old involved to be released to a guardian. That inexplicable action is an operational failure that sows community distrust, and does nothing to enhance public safety or rehabilitate the young person involved.

With that paramount priority in mind, we were glad to see DJS announce changes to its detention policies last week. Those reforms include:

• Ensuring all youth accused of a violent felony who are not detained are placed on electronic monitoring prior to their initial court appearance;
• Mandating that all young people who are already on electronic monitoring and are charged with a violent felony be detained; and
• Creating two new support programs for justice-involved youth and their families to enhance rehabilitation efforts, including the Community Assistance for the Release Eligible and Detention Diversion Advocacy programs.

Regarding the Secretary’s continued performance, the Moore Administration is responsible for personnel decisions within DJS and other executive branch agencies, especially at the cabinet level. As we seek to improve the system no matter who is leading the agency, the 46th District Delegation will continue holding DJS and all relevant implementing agencies to account until the policy changes made in the 2024 Legislative Session are fully implemented and lead to real public safety for our City’s neighborhoods.

Once again, we appreciate you contacting us about this important issue. Your comments help us to better represent you and the people of Maryland's 46th Legislative District. Please stay in touch and do not hesitate to contact our offices if we can ever be of assistance.