Baltimore school funds get cut massively to fund new youth jail

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State officials approved plans Wednesday to build a $30 million, 60-bed jail to house Baltimore teenagers charged as adults, a step to address years of concern about the practice of housing young city defendants alongside adults.

The U.S. Justice Department has said the state-run Baltimore City Detention Center has been violating the law by keeping the youths in the same facility as grown-ups, where teens often are secluded and do not receive school or other services while incarcerated.

The contract to renovate an existing pretrial facility on North Forrest Street near the detention center represents a compromise to an earlier proposal to build a much bigger youth jail in the city.

The Board of Public Works unanimously approved the deal without discussion on Wednesday, a marked shift from the debates that consumed plans to build a $70 million youth jail twice as large two years ago.

Advocates say they hope plummeting populations of young offenders charged as adults and changes in state law will eventually render the $30 million project obsolete.

"It's definitely not we want," said Kara Aanenson, director of advocacy at Community Law In Action, a Baltimore nonprofit that works on juvenile justice issues. "We're really hopeful that will be able to change the law and we won't need to use it for this population."

Gov. Larry Hogan signed a law Tuesday that advocates say would funnel a lot more children charged as adults to juvenile justice facilities, which are generally smaller than jails and provide schooling and counseling.

Aanenson said she and other juvenile justice advocates plan to lobby the General Assembly next year to end the practice of automatically charging many youths accused of violent offenses as adults.

Eight years ago, the state agreed to federal oversight to improve the conditions in which young offenders were kept.

In March, the U.S. Justice Department criticized the Baltimore City Detention Center for continuing to house youths charged as adults alongside the general population.

The issue was a bigger problem before the rate of youths jailed as adults dropped in recent years. State officials said in March that the city detention center holds fewer than 20 minors on any given day. But federal investigators who reviewed the last year jail said those young offenders were sometimes kept in seclusion for a month or longer.

The vast majority of youths charged as adults in the city are today housed in the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center.

Legislative a--lysts, citing a report prepared for the Department of Juvenile Services, said that while the number of juveniles charged as adults has remained above 900 statewide since 2010, those who spent time in jail while awaiting trail has dropped by 39 percent from 2011 to 2014.

Mark Vernarelli, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said that even though the number of youngsters who would use the facility has declined, "the department is committed to housing juveniles charged as adults in a new building that will include classrooms, program space, and medical and recreation areas. It's a facility that's vastly superior to the current location."

source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-youth-jail-20150513-story.html

Gov. Larry Hogan has decided to take $68 million that lawmakers set aside for schools and use it to shore up the state's pension system instead — disappointing school officials in Baltimore and other large districts around the state.

He said giving the extra money to schools instead of putting it into what he said is an unfunded pension system would be "absolutely irresponsible, and it will not happen on my watch."

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, House Speaker Michael E. Busch, teachers union officials and parents had held news conferences and rallies in recent weeks to urge Hogan to spend the money as earmarked for the state's most costly school districts.

Rawlings-Blake said she was "disheartened" by Hogan's decision. Baltimore would have received $11.6 million.

Sean Johnson, Government Relations Director for the Maryland State Education Association, responds to Gov. Hogan's decision not to provide additional school funding. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

"Given how the needs of our children have been highlighted by the events of the past few weeks, I hoped that the governor would have agreed with the General Assembly that these dollars are critical for expanded educational opportunities," she said in a statement.

Hogan accused the teachers union of launching "a heavily financed smear campaign" against him.

"Recently, the misleading rhetoric has shifted to something like, 'Why won't the governor release the money?'" he told reporters in Annapolis.

"There is no magical pot of money that can simply be released or doled out. They're asking us to rob from the pension fund."

Hogan said weekly news conferences by the union and their allies distorted the choice before him.

In a play on Hogan's "Change Maryland" campaign slogan, advocates pleaded: "Don't Shortchange Maryland."

At a rally in Baltimore on Monday, Rawlings-Blake urged the governor: "Write that check. You can do it today. … There's nothing holding you back.

Hogan pointed out that Maryland is spending record amounts on education at a time when it is cutting spending to most state agencies. Maryland spends $7.5 billion on K-12 education each year.

Busch said bond rating agencies have given no indication that the state had underfunded the pension system.

The House speaker told reporters that Hogan's decision was "disappointing." Busch said the governor had overruled the will of the majority of the General Assembly, and in doing so alienated the three largest political jurisdictions in the state. Delegations from Baltimore City and Prince George's and Montgomery counties — which would have seen a total of more than $49 million in additional funding — make up 45 percent of the legislature.

"It's hard to figure out what the overall game plan is for the governor and where he stands on valuing the education system that we have," Busch said.

Sean Johnson, a lobbyist for the teachers union, said Hogan's choice would require some districts to cut teachers. He said it could also mean higher fees for parents, larger class sizes and the elimination of summer programs in other districts.

Johnson declined to respond to Hogan's accusation that the union was spreading misinformation. He accused the governor of turning school funding into "a political football."

"We have the facts on our side, so we'll let him resort to name-calling," Johnson said.

Hogan said he would not veto a separate bill that would require him in all future years to send that money to the 13 districts with the highest costs of educating children.

He called the legislation an "unreasonable mandate," but he said he knows the Democratic legislature would override his veto, and it was not worth putting the public through a "protracted fight."

The political implications of Hogan's choice were unclear, St. Mary's College political scientist Todd Eberly said.

While Democrats could hammer him for underfunding education, the bill he declined to veto would require him to fully fund the schools for the remaining three years of his term.

"If you're a governor, do the things that are controversial in your first year," Eberly said. "By the time the election comes around, people forget about it."

Hogan's decision ends a fight that roiled the General Assembly during its final days, but could spark another.

Hogan suggested Baltimore mismanaged the resources it already had. He accused officials of "losing" $70 million over the course of a year and cited a Baltimore Sun investigation that showed schools paid out $42 million in generous leave policies.

He also pointed out that many local governments spend roughly half their budgets on education, but the city spends less than 15 percent of its budget on schools.

"Baltimore City, unlike the rest of the state, is underfunding education," Hogan said.

City schools CEO Gregory Thornton declined to address Hogan's accusation of financial mismanagement. But he said that the loss of the $11.6 million would mean some schools would not get funding increases to cover cost-of-living adjustments for staff.

He called the decision a "blow to Baltimore City Public Schools at a time when the district can least afford it."

In Baltimore County, schools Superintendent Dallas Dance didn't count on getting the extra money — about $3 million — when he crafted his budget. But he expressed concern that Hogan's choice could diminish the state's reputation for quality education.

"Long term, Maryland's been one of the best states for education because of funding," Dance said.

The money at issue was part of about $200 million that lawmakers set aside for their top priorities — extra school funding, preventing a pay cut for state workers and paying for a range of health-care initiatives that include Medicaid coverage for more pregnant women and funding for heroin addiction.

Hogan said Thursday that he would provide money for the health-care related items. That drew praise from mental health advocates.

"This funding help keep the door open for some of our most vulnerable Marylanders to receive the critical services they need," said Dan Martin, spokesman for a coalition that lobbied the governor for more spending on health care.

Hogan announced this month that he would release money to prevent a 2 percent pay cut for state workers.

But he drew the line Thursday at the increased education funding. He said he was elected to exercise fiscal restraint.

"It is clear that many out-of-touch politicians simply have not gotten the message," he said.

source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-hogan-announcement-20150514-story.html#page=1

 

This is getting way to obvious and blatant.

I'm disgusted.

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They should spend those money on those poor kids' rehabilitation than constructing a prison to restrict their freedom

 

How inhumane of them to do this

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They should spend those money on those poor kids' rehabilitation than constructing a prison to restrict their freedom

 

How inhumane of them to do this

​It's like they're starting to create a real life Hunger Games and nobody seems to care.

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​It's like they're starting to create a real life Hunger Games and nobody seems to care.

​True

It seems like they have no feelings about the value of someone's ife