BALTIMORE — It's always a hot topic, and the city's top prosecutor wants to hear what you have to say about it.
Whether it's for a car break-in or a violent assault, when young offenders are arrested, then sent home to their parents, people in the community want answers. Baltimore City State's Attorney Ivan Bates wants to join the conversation, and he wants to talk solutions.
"I felt like [things] are getting a little bit better. Now, unfortunately I think they're getting a little worse," he said. "But it's not really what we feel here, what does the community feel? It's really what - their perception is the reality."
Hear State's Attorney Bates speak on juvenile crime in Baltimore
Bates is hosting a town hall tonight from 6-8 p.m. at Huber Memorial Church. He's hosted one of these community conversations before - focused on violent crime overall. He says numbers are trending in the right direction when it comes to violent crime in the city.
"What we really wanna focus on is what everybody talks about - juvenile crime," Bates told WMAR-2 News in a recent interview.
According to numbers provided to us by DJS, there have been 319 juvenile cases in Baltimore City so far this year. That's down from last year - when there had been 493 cases at this point in the year, but up from 2023, when there had been 265 cases so far this year. Of the total number of cases this year, about 77% of them resulted in formal court action.
A recent example that might come up at tonight's town hall: Earlier this month, a 16 and 17-year-old assaulted and robbed two women - ages 82 and 64 - in a North Baltimore community garden. Baltimore Police arrested the pair, brought them to the city's Juvenile Justice Center, which is run by the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS), and requested they be held. But DJS intake officers decided to release them to their guardians instead.
"I'm not DJS. I don't know why they make their recommendations. I know they have a machine that - kind of a scale, that kinda tells you what you should try to do or what you should potentially do, but you know I don't really, I don't do that. We unfortunately are just left with the aftermath and we have to pick up the pieces," Bates told WMAR-2 News.
A new law went into effect in November that was supposed to tighten up some of the processes for holding young people accountable. For example, if police request a juvenile be detained and staff at DJS intake don't honor that request, DJS now has two business days to decide whether to pursue judicial action.
In Focus look at the number of juvenile crime cases in Baltimore
"They should be coming back to see a judge and have the judge do the bail review. However, I don't really know if that's really working that way. That's something I would need to go ahead and look at a little bit more in depth," Bates said.
Around the same time that the new law took effect, DJS also changed its internal policies surrounding GPS monitoring. Now, DJS requires any child who commits a violent felony to automatically be placed on GPS monitoring, and any child who is already wearing a monitor when they commit a violent felony, to automatically be detained.
Bates says he'd like to see a full year's worth of data before he makes an assessment on whether the changes to the law are making a difference.
At the town hall tonight, bates will be joined by City Councilman Mark Conway, who chairs the public safety committee. There will also be representatives from several other city agencies that are focused on crime and safety solutions.
