Watchdog critical of youth isolation in detention center

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland's juvenile justice watchdog is criticizing a policy that isolated fighting youths for long periods of time at a Baltimore detention center as a violation of state law, but the state's juvenile services agency is disputing the monitor's findings.

In its response, the Department of Juvenile Services announced plans to implement a special unit for aggressive youth next month at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center. The department wrote that the new unit was developed "in extensive consultation with our federal CRIPA monitor."

The monitor's report takes issue with a program that was implemented in July. During the first week, violent youths were placed in locked cells for up to five days except for a few hours for recreation or showers, the monitor reported.

"A number of youths reported the implementation of this plan to the monitor and to the public defender, referring to the practice as '23/1,'" the monitor wrote, noting that only one hour would be allowed outside the cell under the policy.

After the first week, the monitor said youths at the center were not locked in, but were prevented from leaving their cells in late July and August.

"The centerpiece of the program was the use of room isolation for long periods of time," the monitor wrote. "This program violated departmental policy and state law, and was potentially harmful to youth in its care."

But the department said youths were not locked in for extended periods in their rooms. Instead, their doors were kept open and youths were able to walk out at staff's discretion when other youths were not on the unit, the department said.

"To be clear, these few youth were on social separation (open door room time) due to having engaged in numerous and very aggressive fighting where other youth and staff were subject to their constant assaultive behavior," the department wrote.

The department pointed to 18 hours of video review as evidence that youths were not locked in. But Marlana Valdez, the state's juvenile justice monitor, said the department did not have video going back to the time when the policy was first implemented.

The monitor's report also cites internal facility documents in which a youth who was isolated under the program was described as "banging on door, yelling." On another occasion, a youth was described as "yelling through door."

The department said all youths who were separated received their meals, recreation and education packets.

"The use of this process, in conjunction with the mental health clinicians at BCJJC, did not in any way violate state law or DJS policy as is alleged," the department wrote.

The monitor cites a Sept. 28 letter from Deputy Secretary Sheri Meisel to Valdez indicating that the program had been put on hold. That, the letter from Meisel said, was because "the social separation procedure was rolled out by the facility too quickly and without the more comprehensive training and communication we would have preferred."

The monitor criticized the department for defending the practice of "social separation," a term the monitor took issue with.

"The department has offered a hyper-technical interpretation of its policies on seclusion by arguing that if the door is not locked, the youth is not secluded," the monitor wrote.

The monitor noted that long periods of isolation can be psychologically damaging.

"Isolation is prohibited under the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, and it is prohibited to be used as punishment for juveniles by statute and policy in Maryland," the report said.

While the department has put the program on hold, Valdez criticized the agency for stating in its response that it "cannot altogether remove the possibility that for some violent youth, open door time may have to be used to protect others."

Matthew Joseph, executive director of Advocates for Children and Youths, faulted the facility's structure, and he said officials should be thinking more about what is causing youths to fight.

"When we hear stories like this, it just kind of reiterates how much a failure that center has been from its very inception and that there still seems to be fundamental flaws in how the facility operates," Joseph said.

The department said it has been developing a special unit for aggressive youths that will be implemented next month at the detention center. The unit, which could accommodate up to 10 youths, will provide a smaller staff-to-youth ratio, extra training for staff, more structure and more mental health services.

"The goal is for this short term unit to provide more structure for youth whose behavior is not acceptable on their regular unit and to give them a few tools to be able to use when they are discharged so that they can be more successful in their unit," the department said.

The new unit has been developed with a U.S. Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons Act monitor, an expert in the fields of juvenile justice special education and department staff, the department said.

The detention center has about 111 youths, and its maximum capacity is 120.