BALTIMORE, Md. — The Office of the Public Defender is calling on the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) to allow it to inspect the Youth Detention Center dorms after it confirmed the heating system at the facility is not functioning.
"This is unconscionable," says Public Defender Natasha Dartigue. "Baltimore City Public Schools closes when indoor temperatures are this low because we recognize that children cannot learn, cannot thrive, cannot be safe in those conditions. Yet right now, 63 children are sleeping in extremely cold dormitories with nothing but thin blankets, and we're told they may endure this for days while we wait for parts to arrive. The State has a constitutional duty to provide humane conditions of confinement and is failing miserably."
"The Youth Detention Center in Baltimore is actively addressing the heating system in our male housing units," said Keith Martucci, a spokesperson for the DPSCS. "We can say with certainty, though, that current indoor temperatures are not dangerous and at no point have any youths in our custody experienced medical issues related to the colder temperatures."
The Office of the Public Defender says that in the living quarters, the daytime temperatures are between 55 and 60 degrees, and says that children are reporting colder temperatures at night.
"Cold exposure is dangerous," says Dartigue. "These children are trying to sleep in these conditions, night after night. The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Making children endure this cold is cruel."
DPSCS says it has submitted an "emergency declaration" to get the heating fixed as soon as possible.
"Extra blankets and additional warm clothing have already been provided to residents," says Martucci. "And to help maintain stable indoor temperatures, portable electric heaters have been placed in the housing units as needed and rotated to ensure safe and adequate warmth. "
