The commission to address issues within the state’s juvenile system held its first meeting Wednesday, with the mission to redefine how people discuss youth who get into trouble. .

“I care about people involved in the justice system, and I care deeply about young people who are involved in the juvenile justice system, and I know we can do better by them,” retired Judge Andre M. Davis, the chair of the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging Best Practices, said.

The 26-member commission, which is charged with reviewing data, diversion programs and existing policies and services at the Department of Juvenile Services, DJS, held its inaugural meeting at the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention offices in Crownsville.

The commission, under law, is required to meet six times a year.

Beyond reviewing DJS protocol, the commission will have five workgroups. Each is charged with investigating a different aspect of the juvenile justice system.

That includes reviewing all deaths involving children under the jurisdiction of DJS; mining and compiling data related to the juvenile justice system; studying treatments and services available to youth in- and out-of-state; discussing recidivism education and re-entry services; and crafting a narrative change around juvenile justice, as a whole.

Davis said he expects the work it does to be “the envy of the country, if not the world, in how we lift up justice involved children so that they can thrive and grow.” He emphasized Gov. Wes Moore’s personal interest in redefining the way that juvenile crime and justice is discussed.

“It’s a real thing that we, and I say this as a judge, retired judge, long in the system, we don’t know how to talk about this with our friends and family. We don’t know how to talk about the needs of children. We don’t know how to remind people that we are, in fact, talking about children,” Davis said.

Joining the commissioners were House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, a Baltimore County Democrat, and Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore City Democrat, both of whom sponsored the 2024 legislation that established the committee.

Ferguson said the committee’s responsibility is to “dig into the hard realities and the hard truths” of “too many kids, and too many families, and too many communities” not getting the help they need or deserve.

At the meeting’s start, Jones explained that she was thinking of her two grandchildren when she initially sponsored the bill.

“When I think about keeping them safe, I think about getting the struggling, and sometimes dangerous, children around them the help they need,” she said.

However, Jones emphasized that the mission of the commission is “not about punishment,” but ensuring there is accountability within the state’s juvenile justice system.

“When juveniles aren’t being properly identified and funneled into the services they need, we are failing them. When stakeholders aren’t being held to account for juveniles in the system, we are failing them,” she said. “We need to make sure that we have accountability at every step of the system, and that will be your job.”