The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services on Tuesday announced the formation of a statewide Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging Best Practices, along with changes to detention policies, on the heels of the wide criticism over the agency’s failure to detain a 15-year-old who police say was caught on camera attacking a man in Butchers Hill last week.

The department is adjusting its policies to mandate that children who have been accused of a violent crime, but are not being detained, are electronically monitored. Children who have been charged with a violent crime and are currently being electronically monitored will be detained.

The agency has also created two new support programs. The Community Assistance for the Release Eligible, or CARE, Program, will provide service referrals to families and youth who are involved in the system but not being detained. The Detention Diversion Advocacy Program will support children placed on community supervision while their cases are pending in the courts.

“The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services is focused on promoting accountability, rehabilitation, and preventing justice-involved young people from reoffending,” Vincent Schiraldi, the secretary of the Department of Juvenile Services, said in a statement. “Using a data-informed approach and in partnership with our legislative leaders, law enforcement, community leaders, and other system stakeholders, we are committed to working with the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform to build safer and stronger communities.”

In a statement, Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, called the policy changes “simple, common-sense adjustments that will better serve everyone — including Baltimore’s residents, our law enforcement officers diligently trying to responsibly do their jobs, and the young people themselves who find they are on the wrong path.”

On Sept. 26, Baltimore Police responded to a 66-year-old man who said he was robbed by multiple armed people on the 200 block of South Madeira Street near Patterson Park. The man said multiple people approached him from behind, showed him a gun and then began punching him. He was treated at a hospital for his injuries, police said.

“Unfortunately, this has become a pattern,” Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen, a Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday. “It cannot continue.”

Cohen, who represents the Baltimore City district where both incidents occurred, is calling on the Department of Juvenile Services, DJS, to require children accused of committing robberies to be held overnight.

According to a news release, Baltimore Police arrested 18-year-old Montaz Bailey in connection to the beating and charged him with attempted murder. The 15-year-old alleged accomplice was initially released to a guardian after a detention review at the Juvenile Justice Center. On Tuesday, the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office said a grand jury had indicted the 15-year-old as an adult on charges including attempted first-degree murder.

Both had been arrested in prior incidents, the news release said. Officers said they also recovered a gun and the man’s property.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Theresa C. Morse ordered Bailey to remain held without bond following a brief hearing Tuesday, ruling that she believed he was a danger to the community based on the facts of the case.

“In Baltimore City, if you’re going to stomp on individuals’ heads, you can expect to get charged with (attempted) murder,” Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said. “We think that type of behavior is heinous, it’s vicious, it’s violent. We will not stand for that. We will hold individuals accountable.”

Bates, a first-term Democrat, said he was frustrated with how the Department of Juvenile Services, DJS, handled the 15-year-old’s case. He said he believes the police applied for robbery charges against the 15-year-old, but described a more serious crime in charging documents.

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, declined to comment on the case during an event in Baltimore Tuesday.

“This incident is truly horrific, and my heart is with this victim and our communities,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Worley said in a statement Friday. “More must be done to address the ongoing challenges of crimes being committed by young people and the lack of consequences and accountability. These incidents undermine the work of the BPD and erode the trust our communities place in us to keep them safe.”

Last November, a woman was robbed by a group of minors at the corner of East Lombard Street and South Patterson Park Avenue. The minors were arrested and ultimately released.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said on WBAL News Radio’s C4 and Bryan Nehman show Tuesday morning that knowing the context behind charges against children is imperative.

According to Ferguson, a Democrat who also represents both areas, the video in the 2024 case was not made available until after the child was released, and robbery is considered a non-violent offense under Maryland law, “so it comes in looking like a different thing than what all of us saw on that video,” he said.

“Even if you have the state’s attorney’s office there and you have the DJS officer who is reviewing the case, if the only thing they have in front of them is a non-violent charge without the context of it, it’s a different equation,” Ferguson said.

Youth arrests have declined so far this year in Baltimore, according to a new analysis of Baltimore Police data from The Sentencing Project.

Arrests of people under 18 in 2024 have averaged 65 per month — lower than last year’s monthly average, according to a report from the nonprofit organization released Tuesday. That number also represents a decline from pre-pandemic levels. Youth arrests fell during the peak pandemic from 2019, when nearly twice as many were arrested on average per month.

The report also found minors between the ages of 10 and 17 were responsible for a small and diminishing proportion of arrests relative to their share of Baltimore’s population.

“While any instance of youth crime is concerning, we cannot ignore the data. It’s imperative that we base our understanding of youth offending on accurate information rather than fear-based narratives,” said Josh Rovner, director of youth justice at The Sentencing Project, in a news release.

Ryan Coleman, president of the Randallstown NAACP, has been a frequent critic of DJS policies that he says have failed to hold children accused of crimes accountable.

“Children that commit violent crimes need to be held. If home monitoring works, okay. We’ve seen kids on home monitoring, while it’s on, committing crimes, so I don’t know if that works. Whatever the case is, they need to be detained and get resources,” Coleman said in response to the new policies announced Tuesday.

DJS also announced the launch of a statewide commission to review and report on the state’s facilities and programming.

The Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging Best Practices was one of many pieces of a comprehensive juvenile justice reform bill passed during the 2024 legislative session. The 26-member commission will review diversion programs and existing agency policies, including the use of child in need of services, or CINS, petitions, supportive programming for girls, and wait times for children to be placed in facilities.

“No matter where you are in the city, where you are in the region, no one should feel scared stepping out of their home,” Ferguson said during his radio interview. “It’s why we passed the bill last [session], and one of the core components of that was to have an oversight entity that is not the Department of Juvenile Services, itself, looking at its own operations.”

The majority of the law that created the commission goes into effect Nov. 1. It also expands the list of charges children aged 10 to 12 can face to include certain firearm offenses, third degree sex offenses — using a weapon, threatening or physically harming someone while also committing sexual assault — and aggravated animal cruelty.

CINS petitions will be automatically filed for children under 13 who commit car theft.

If a child on electronic monitoring violates the terms of their community detention, DJS must alert their lawyer and the state’s attorney’s office.

Children will be able to be sent to a diversion program by a DJS intake officer rather than having their case forwarded to the jurisdiction’s state’s attorney’s office. However, if the intake officer determines that the child cannot successfully complete the program, they will be required to forward the complaint to the state’s attorney.

“The bill that we passed I think closed a lot of important loopholes, but it all comes down to operations,” Ferguson said. “If it’s not operationally effective, we’ll never get results that we need.”

Baltimore Sun reporters Cassidy Jensen, Alex Mann and Dan Belson contributed to this article. Got a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com, 410-320-2803 and on X as @hnnhgskllalso.