In The Baltimore Sun article (“What to do about the juvenile crime epidemic plaguing Baltimore | Guest Commentary,” Dec. 26) Eric Braun asks the question, “What to do about the juvenile crime epidemic plaguing Baltimore,” but his solution does not really address the crime from the POV of the low income, crime-infused environment in which these young boys are living.

In Baltimore City in 2016, 156 juveniles were arrested pending adult criminal charges. This number has been growing and now, in 2024, there have been 163 arrests since November.

In September 2019, The Sun editorial board published “Baltimore needs a holistic approach toward ‘squeegee kids,’” an article pleading with the public, “to take a step back and be careful not to demonize these 100 or so kids, mostly boys, who are showing an entrepreneurial spirit.” But after a growing dramatic increase of incidents of cash app scams, damage to cars, aggressive and criminal behavior, culminating in a murder, and an outcry from the public that they no longer feel safe driving into the city, the practice was finally banned last year.

Now, the male youth has discovered carjacking, with kids even coming from Washington, D.C., to take advantage of Baltimore’s soft approach on crime. According to crime data, there have been more than 450 carjackings this year. Meanwhile, all Baltimore City residents, even those who have been fortunate enough not to be direct victims, are paying with their car insurance rates going up, yet another point to consider moving out. According to Baltimore City Police Department figures, 70 juveniles were arrested just in November. And the public is infuriated, while Baltimore’s mayor and chief of police are saying, “Yeah, but the murders are down.”

The Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center (BCJJC) on Gay Street is only for detaining the youths until their pretrial hearing before the judge. They are held for a day or so, released to parents, who are not able or not inclined to discipline them, and they go right back out into the neighborhood, ankle monitors and all, the environment where participation in crime is admired and a key to acceptance among their peers. What happens to the victims is swept under the rug, but the number of traumatized, law abiding citizens paying a dear price now under that rug is becoming a ponderous digit.

We read that the truancy rate is through the roof, while taxpayers are paying for their attendance. More than 8,000 students missed at least 60 days of school in the 2022-2023 school year. In the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City, the Truancy Court’s process is designed to hold parents accountable and ensure they come up with a plan to get their kids to school. But the court can’t fix the socioeconomic factors underlying school truancy.

Braun doesn’t want to say it, but what we need to do is bring back the Reform School for Boys. Given this growing undercurrent of ever younger criminals, Baltimore desperately needs to invest in a high quality reform school, where the repeat offending youths are plucked out of their criminally infused village, away from the incapable or unwilling parents and family, and separated into age-related groups. Here they will be given a new life, a chance at becoming decent citizens. They will be provided with therapy, have clean beds and clothing, they will be provided with mandatory schooling, possibly also taught a trade, and provided with decent nutritionally balanced meals.

Parents will of course cry pitifully for their release, whining they can’t make it without their help, how they are emotionally impacted, and other various pleas for their release. But these parents are not doing their job, they have other children usually, they obviously have no idea where their kids are most of the time, and they are preoccupied, overlooking or perhaps even encouraging the criminal behavior that is taking down our city, one taxpaying resident at a time, one small business at a time, and one visiting family at a time.

Why not consider trying a realistic, grassroots, conservative approach to helping turn the tide of Baltimore’s youth and returning Baltimore to its true charm, where one can park and walk a couple of blocks without being assaulted and robbed, where one can get into their car without being ambushed by multiple brutal, young, urban males and having said car stolen.

Without removing these young criminals from the polluted waters in which they are reveling, with the police and the judges playing catch and release, their parents simply sighing and going on about their day, these youths will never make it in life, they will end up in prison as adults, and that is something we really can’t afford!

— Georgia Corso, Baltimore