Heating system broken for weeks in Maryland jail for youth, advocates say

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/maryland-jail-for-youth-has-been-without-heat-for-weeks-advocates-say/ar-AA1RZPi4

Heating system broken for weeks in Maryland jail for youth, advocates say

Story by Katie Mettler

The heating system at a Maryland youth jail has been broken for weeks — causing the dozens of young people incarcerated there to endure frigid temperatures as the weather outside plummeted below freezing or near it, the state’s top public defender said at a news conference Monday.

Youth justice advocates and representatives from the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and state employee union AFSCME said the Youth Detention Facility in Baltimore city has been without a functioning heating system in the male housing unit and gymnasium since at least the week of Thanksgiving.

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“When the heat failed, children were left freezing. The state acted with no urgency,” said Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue, whose attorneys began investigating the heating issues in response to family complaints. “Maryland, we can absolutely do better.”

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First, advocates said, those administrations had chronically underfunded or deferred critical maintenance projects at numerous state facilities, including the Baltimore youth detention facility. Second, they said, the administrations have chosen to uphold the state’s longtime practice of automatically charging young people as adults — which places them at the Youth Detention Facility instead of within the care of the state’s Department of Juvenile Services.

Most of those held at the Youth Detention Facility are teens who have been charged as adults and are awaiting trial. More than 80 percent of those automatically charged as adults are eventually deferred back to the juvenile court system or have their charges dismissed altogether, but only after they’ve spent months in detention facilities that aren’t designed for rehabilitation, advocates said.

… more … no comment: former governor Larry Hogan (R) and Gov. Wes Moore (D) had failed to prioritize the safety and care of the young people in state custody…