BALTIMORE, Md. — The arctic blast in Baltimore can be felt inside and outside the Youth Detention Facility, where a pair of heat compressors failed, leaving 63 children being charged as adults, struggling to stay warm.
WATCH: Arctic juvenile incarceration in Baltimore
Raven Epps’ 15-year-old son is one of them.
“It’s been over basically three weeks that they have no heat in there and it’s not okay and it’s unsafe conditions,” said Epps, “because at the end of the day, if the state can take your kids for that, why can’t they have the same thing set up and provided and won’t have them cold and they can have health conditions like asthma.”
The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services says repair work on the system has been on hold as workers wait for a part that’s due for delivery on Monday.
Over the weekend, the department brought in electric space heaters to bring the inmates some relief, but critics say it was long overdue.
“For over a week, these 63 children slept in dormitories where there was no heat,” said Maryland Public Defender Natasha M. Dartigue, “The indoor temperatures averaged between 55 to 60 degrees, and outside we know at night it was an average of 24 degrees.
Opponents of housing juveniles in adult facilities have seized on the conditions to challenge their automatic placement there under current laws.
“It’s shameful,” said Human Rights For Kids CEO James Dold, “It’s not only a violation of these children’s constitutional rights. What they’re engaged in, make no mistake, is a violation of the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and even more to the point, it is a human rights violation. Governor Moore has to own this.”
It’s a point not lost upon parents, like Raven Epps, who question the department’s efforts, since initially inmates were told they would have to pay for extra blankets or thermal clothing from the commissary if they wanted to stay warm.
“I don’t believe them, because I got to talk to my son recently and he did say he was still cold, there’s no heat,” Epps told us, “and at the end of the day, those are people’s children, and it’s not fair or anything like that they should be kept like that. They’re not animals, and they’re not dead, so they need to be warm.”
