New Youth Detention Facility (Baltimore City)

The New Youth Detention Facility in Baltimore City is a jail planned by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS).

Youth charged as adults are not covered by the provisions for "Sight and Sound Separation" required by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.

The state of Maryland announced plans to build new facilities for children and women in 2007, amidst investigations by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) calling BCDC "deliberately indifferent" to the condition of inmates.

[3] On January 18, 2008, Governor Martin O'Malley announced plan to spend $200 million constructing new juvenile detention facilities, including one in Baltimore.

The report also notes the existence of "reverse waivers", which allow adult courts to transfer youth to the juvenile detention system while retaining control of their case.

As a person tried as an adult when she was 17, Handy also cautions readers that youth ought not to be housed at the Baltimore City Detention Center; she suggests that perhaps a temporary facility could be found.

[11] Pastor Heber Brown argued that the state's spending priorities reflected basic racism against Baltimore's African American residents.

It formed a large coalition to oppose the construction of the youth jail, which it argued would actually lead to more young people being tried as adults and imprisoned.

[21] The Maryland General Assembly asked the DPSCS to produce a report on whether the number of beds at the facility could be reduced, suspending work on the project in the meantime.

[23] In April 2012, the Maryland House Appropriations Committee again declared the project suspended and asked DPSCS to provide another report: on whether the existing Pre-Release Unit for Women could be used as an alternative space to hold youth charged as adults.