O'Malley Criticizes Juvenile Services

Political Rival Pins Blame on Governor

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley charged yesterday that the state agency responsible for juvenile offenders is in "free fall" and blamed Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) for failing to turn it around.

"I'm talking about Governor Ehrlich's leadership," O'Malley (D) said during a news conference at City Hall, where he released his own 10-point plan for improving the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. "There's a lack of leadership."

Ehrlich, who as a candidate in 2002 pledged to make juvenile justice a priority, responded swiftly by highlighting a sore point in O'Malley's stewardship.

"The mayor instead ought to develop a 10-point plan to reduce the rising murder rate in Baltimore City," Ehrlich spokesman Henry Fawell said, referring to an uptick last year that moved the city further from O'Malley's goal of reducing homicides significantly.

The blunt exchange foreshadowed a dynamic certain to repeat itself if O'Malley becomes the Democratic nominee for governor in 2006: Ehrlich seeking to highlight problems in Baltimore, which is home to a disproportionate share of the state's social ills, and O'Malley arguing that the state has failed to do its part to assist the city.

At yesterday's news conference, O'Malley said Baltimore is doing what it can to help troubled teenagers rebuild their lives. He announced that he is doubling funding, to $2 million, of a city initiative that seeks to connect these young people with education, mental health and drug-treatment services. The program, Operation Safe Kids, is one of several operated by the city.

But O'Malley pointed out that it is the state's responsibility to steer children into those programs as part of its broader charge of administering juvenile justice.

"We can't do it all at the city level," said Peter L. Beilenson, the city's health commissioner, who appeared alongside O'Malley.

O'Malley's 10-point plan includes measures to provide the public with more information about the department's successes and failures and to put a greater emphasis on targeting young people involved in the drug trade.

He noted that each year, more that 500 children from Baltimore turn 15 with three or more arrests on their records. He said the greatest predictor of whether they will be killed is their involvement in the drug trade.

O'Malley said he was not motivated by politics in highlighting shortcomings in the state's juvenile justice system, which handles about 50,000 children a year.

"This is not so much about the next election as it is about the next generation," he said.

At the news conference, however, his aides distributed a quote from Ehrlich in 2001, when he was gearing up to challenge then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) for governor.

"The system cries out for leadership," Ehrlich said of the juvenile justice system for which Townsend took responsibility. "My recollection is certain promises were made -- by her. Who's in charge? What follows from that leadership responsibility? What on a daily and weekly basis has been done? These are real difficult questions."

Since Ehrlich's arrival, questions about the department's leadership have persisted, with Democratic lawmakers arguing that the situation has deteriorated.

A pair of independent reports released in the fall found that violence, abusive treatment and staffing shortages continued to plague the state's largest facilities for juvenile offenders, including a new, $60 million detention center in Baltimore. The department is also dealing with a significant budget shortfall.

O'Malley also urged Ehrlich to sign several bills passed by the legislature that would step up oversight of the department by lawmakers and the attorney general's office and foster more communication with city officials.

Fawell said yesterday that Ehrlich remains "absolutely committed to his campaign to reform the juvenile justice system." He also questioned O'Malley's level of commitment during the legislative session. O'Malley said he lobbied hard for the measures.