Tensions in Maryland juvenile justice circles erupt over scathing audit

Washington Post

a day ago

Three top officials overseeing Maryland's juvenile detention facilities were fired this week after a state ombudsman published a report containing allegations of numerous problems inside those buildings, including contraband drugs, food quality concerns, staffing shortages and a sexual incident among three young people who were incarcerated.
The report, a mandated quarterly update on oversight work by the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit (JJMU), was published on Monday and is based on observations from the first six months of the year, when former juvenile services secretary Vincent Schiraldi was still leading the department.
The report lays blame for the alleged problems, some of which have been chronic for decades, at the feet of Schiraldi's team and encourages state officials to 'determine a new direction,' a recommendation that underscores tensions between Schiraldi and Gov. Wes Moore's (D) administration since the former secretary left his position in June.
Schiraldi did not respond to a request for comment, but his former chief of staff, Marc Schindler, said the report contains inaccuracies that their team was not allowed to address before it was published, including context regarding allegations that their team tried to withhold information from the ombudsman.
State law mandates that JJMU reports include a written response from the Department of Juvenile Services, but this one did not — deviating from a practice that has existed for decades across dozens of watchdog evaluations.
'Fair-minded people who look at this report will have lots of questions,' said Schindler, who was also Schiraldi's deputy secretary.
Acting Department of Juvenile Services Secretary Betsy Fox Tolentino said in a statement that she received a copy of the report on July 29, the day after it was published, and the firings — which the corrections watchdog recommended — happened July 30.
'The report confirms, with some truly appalling detail, many of the same challenges that I have learned about during my first weeks in my role as acting secretary as I visited facilities, spoke directly with staff, and assessed urgent operational changes,' Tolentino said in a statement. 'I am deeply troubled by the unacceptable conditions that some of our young people are facing in our care and it is absolutely unacceptable that some of our staff do not feel safe at work.'
Adina Levi, deputy secretary of residential services, was terminated, as were two of her team members, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post and interviews with people who have knowledge of the firings. Levi did not respond to a request for comment.
The report was published at a politically fraught time for Moore's administration, as a fractured coalition of state officials, lawmakers, law enforcement and advocates grapple with how to best care for the children in the state's juvenile justice system.
Moore appointed Schiraldi to reform the department in 2023, a move hailed by youth justice advocates as a bold step forward for an embattled agency that was once investigated by the Justice Department. But after two and a half years on the job, Schiraldi resigned in early June amid intense scrutiny from Republicans, prosecutors and some community members who worried his approach was too soft amid a spike in juvenile crime that has since subsided.
Moore initially praised Schiraldi's work, then later said he had 'ordered' his resignation.
The governor immediately appointed Tolentino, who Schiraldi said he had recommended to succeed him and who had worked within the department for many years. She also worked closely with Schiraldi's team through her most recent role at the Roca Impact Institute.
The JJMU audit is the first quarterly report to publish since the department's change in leadership and since Nick Moroney, the longtime director of the JJMU, resigned this spring.
The JJMU, which has existed for decades, was housed under the Office of the Attorney General until last year, when the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation creating a new, independent Office of the Correctional Ombudsman. The juvenile monitors were relocated under the ombudsman's umbrella, and the governor appointed Yvonne Briley-Wilson to lead the office.
The report — which combines two quarters — was overseen by Briley-Wilson because the JJMU director role has been vacant since the departure of Moroney. He said he left because he did not agree with Briley-Wilson's 'methodology' or the direction she was taking the unit he had led for more than a decade.
Both Moroney and Schindler said that it's impossible to get a full picture of the incidents and allegations documented in the report because the ombudsman did not follow the state law that requires prepublication response from the department.
The report includes potentially identifying information about children in the state's care, including details from their private medical files, which Moroney called inappropriate. He said the exclusion of a DJS response — and the call for specific individuals to lose their jobs — in the report was 'unprecedented.' He oversaw the assembly of dozens of such reports during his more than 17 years with the office, he said, and all included a written response from the department.
The law requires the quarterly reports from the JJMU to include 'actions taken by the Department resulting from the findings and recommendations of the Unit, including the Department's response.'
Briley-Wilson said in a statement that the JJMU 'regularly conducted investigations and submitted debriefing reports to DJS,' and that the report released this week was 'submitted appropriately and as required by law. We stand by the content and recommendations of the report.'
Spokespersons for the governor and the Department of Juvenile Services did not respond to questions about the state statute requirements.
Moore said in a statement on Wednesday that the findings were 'unconscionable, unacceptable, and must be addressed in the swiftest and most certain terms.' Tolentino, the governor said, 'is deeply engaged in the full-scale work to correct the systemic failures that contributed to the report's findings.'
Among those findings was a May incident at Green Ridge Youth Center in Western Maryland, where three students had engaged in sexual activity with one another in a dorm sleeping area. The sexual conduct had taken place in a bunk bed behind a sheet that had been draped from the upper wrung, which violated the department's policy regarding privacy screens, according to the report.
Surveillance video footage of the incident shows a Green Ridge staff member lifting up the sheet and walking away without removing it, though it is not clear from the report what the staffer saw behind the sheet. One of the involved young people had previously told staff he felt unsafe and had asked to be moved, according to the report, though it did not specify what had made him feel unsafe.
The incident was reported by a young person to a case manager, and the department's inspector general and the JJMU were notified.
In the report, Briley-Wilson said Schiraldi's team delayed providing the video footage and other requested documents to the ombudsman, writing that she had requested for numerous video files to be shared by email and was denied.
Schindler said that department officials told Briley-Wilson's team that their requests were 'inconsistent with long-standing and mutually accepted practices' and that they could view the video in person at the facility to protect the confidential information of juveniles. He said that the ombudsman did not respond to numerous requests to meet with DJS leaders.
'Failure to include this information in the report resulted in an inaccurate portrayal of DJS's willingness to share information and its commitment to transparency,' Schindler said.
The report outlined widespread issues with contraband and drugs in four of the state's juvenile facilities, including suboxone strips and vape pens.
The report said that 'systemwide staff shortages have created potentially unsafe environments for both staff and students,' including situations where low staffing meant girls at Western Maryland Children's Center were put in 'pseudo-seclusions' in their rooms. The state employee union, AFSCME Maryland, has voiced similar concerns about staffing shortages.
Criticisms regarding facility cleanliness, tattered clothing, spoiled food and the handling of an evacuation at Green Ridge during heavy rainfall in May were also documented in the report.
On Wednesday, Tolentino sent Briley-Wilson a six-page response letter to the report, thanking the ombudsman for 'continued oversight and partnership' and saying she is 'fully committed to transparency.'
That letter included a response to the report's many recommendations and what actions the department has taken so far to address them.
'The JJMU report provides a strong foundation for us to move forward,' she wrote, 'and address long-standing challenges that arose under previous leadership.'