Chronic Troubles At Youth Jails Haunt Campaign

"It's by no means a perfect system. But it doesn't mean we haven't moved in that direction," said Juvenile Services Secretary Kenneth C. Montague Jr. "There has been a large, large change."

But advocates say the political stakes make it hard for officials to admit there are problems in the system.

"How can you fix anything you can't admit to?" asked Ralph B. Thomas, former head of the Office of the Independent Juvenile Justice Monitor under Ehrlich and his Democratic predecessor. Ehrlich "inherited a mess, and the mess continues."

Montague said the State Department of Education is slowly taking over schools in the facilities and is scheduled to be running them all by 2012. Drug courts in a growing number of counties are offering some youths a chance at treatment.

Two facilities with long histories of trouble, Cheltenham and the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore, have been downsized, although there was a stabbing at Hickey this month. Two small youth detention centers, one on the Eastern Shore and one in Western Maryland, have opened.

Some of the improvements have come with federal monitoring.

Cheltenham and Hickey are being monitored by teams of juvenile justice experts following a 2005 settlement between the state and the Justice Department following claims of civil rights violations.

Educational programs have improved considerably at both facilities in the past year, said Peter Leone, a University of Maryland professor on a team for the two institutions. "It's safe to say there have been dramatic improvements," he said.

Yet elsewhere, observers have documented chaos. Patrick J. Elder, a Bethesda teacher, tried working at the Alfred D. Noyes Children's Center in Rockville for one day last spring -- then handed in his resignation.

"What I saw was disgusting," he said. "The kids had no pencils, no paper, no books." While two guards sat and chatted in the back of the room, he said, he tried unsuccessfully to get the attention of the 19 boys. Five were playing poker; three were wrestling on the floor.

"I realized this is not for me."

Independent monitors at the center found similar chaotic conditions. Montague said Noyes presents special challenges because the high cost of living in Montgomery County makes it hard to pay and retain good staff members. In response to staff and teacher shortages there, salaries were recently raised.