Bed Space Forecast for Baltimore Youth Detention Facility

The Open Society Institute-Baltimore and its grantees experienced a victory in their effort to stop the construction of new jail for youth charged as adults, and to end the automatic prosecution of these youth. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, an OSI-Baltimore grantee, has released a report stating that the bed need for youth charged as adults is substantially lower than what state officials originally projected.

According to the report, the bed need would be reduced to 44 (or even zero) if the State of Maryland followed the lead of Virginia and Pennsylvania, where all youth under the age of 18 who must be detained are held in juvenile facilities.