Cheltenham, Hickey Show Improvement
By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Two long-troubled detention centers for boys, including the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County, have been released from federal oversight three years after the U.S. Justice Department sued Maryland for violating the youths' civil rights, Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced yesterday.
Juvenile offenders at Cheltenham in Upper Marlboro and the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County are safer from violence and from fire, less prone to suicide, and receive better medical, mental health and special education services, according to a motion filed by the Justice Department in federal court this week.
"It is safe to say the department felt that both facilities have shown sufficient reforms in these areas," said Jamie Hais, spokeswoman for the Justice Department's civil rights division.
However, a third detention center, the Juvenile Justice Center in Baltimore, remains under federal oversight while the Department of Juvenile Services addresses staffing shortages, crowding and violations cited by federal officials last year. Juvenile offenders are sent to the three facilities while their cases move through the court system.
O'Malley, announcing the end of the lawsuit over Cheltenham and Hickey, called Maryland's juvenile justice agency "one of the most neglected parts of state government." Juvenile Services Secretary Donald W. DeVore, a former federal monitor hired by O'Malley last year, called the changes to the two aging detention centers a "tangible sign of how a long-troubled agency can go toward reform." The state has poured millions of dollars into improvements at Cheltenham and Hickey, adding staff and therapeutic services and banning the use of restraints.
DeVore described the facilities as "some of the worst in America" when the Justice Department forced the state to make changes.
Yesterday's announcement capped an investigation that began in 2002 and uncovered frequent beatings and abuse of many boys at the detention centers by staff members and other teenagers.
Some of the problems stemmed from crowding. As many as 400 boys were detained at Cheltenham and Hickey then. Yesterday, the Prince George's facility had 104 boys, and the Baltimore center had 78, officials said.
Then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) ordered Hickey closed in 2005, but only the building where boys were confined was shut.
O'Malley has announced plans to raze the Cheltenham center and remaining Hickey buildings and replace them with 48-bed treatment centers for troubled teenagers who are ordered confined by the court. Advocates said they are pleased to see improvement at Cheltenham and Hickey. But they said the state should devote more resources to programs to prevent violence and divert troubled teenagers from detention to community programs when they do not pose a safety risk.
"I'd love to think we reach a time when we won't need detention," said Jim McComb, executive director of the Maryland Association of Resources for Family and Youth.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.