Maryland chief justice orders state to reduce number of juveniles in detention to limit COVID-19 risk

Maryland’s chief justice ordered the state Monday to try to decrease the number of juveniles in detention to prevent the risk of spreading COVID-19.

Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera’s order calls for local courts to consider alternatives for juvenile offenders and to inspect detention orders every two weeks throughout the coronavirus pandemic. 

The order directs local judges to find detained juveniles for potential release “in order to protect the health of at-risk juveniles during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis” and to “limit detention or commitment, unless necessary to protect the safety of that juvenile respondent or the safety of others.”

Barbera’s order follows the public defender office’s emergency request to reduce the number of young people in state-run facilities. The Court of Appeals denied the emergency request last week but issued this statewide guidance Monday.

Maryland Public Defender Paul DeWolfe said in a statement obtained by The Washington Post on Tuesday that the order demonstrates that action is “urgently needed.”

“While some judges and prosecutors have already been working with us to get kids home to their loved ones during this terrifying time, several have not,” he said.

Since the emergency request, 11 juvenile offenders and staff have tested positive for the virus, according to the chief attorney of the public defender’s Baltimore City Juvenile Division, the Post reported.

The chief judge’s order comes after calls across the country to decrease the prison population to avoid these facilities from becoming hotspots for the virus, including from several factions of the American Civil Liberties Union. 

States like New York and California have allowed thousands of parole violators or nonviolent offenders, who are close to release, to be removed from prisons as the virus continues to strike the country.