Despite Reservations On Both Sides, Advocates Hope To Pass Youth Charging Bill

By William J. Ford, Maryland Matters

April 6, 2026

Few are thrilled about a bill to limit the number of offenses for which youth can be automatically charged in adult courts.

Some Democrats said Senate Bill 323 doesn’t do enough to protect juveniles, who they say should only be tried in juvenile court. Republicans think it does too much and are likely to try to amend it when it comes up for a final vote, possibly as early as Monday.

But supporters like Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County), noting that it took more than a decade to get the measure out of either chamber, said that the compromise bill is now on the verge of final passage and it’s time to “take the victory that you’ve made.”

“Sure, it’s [the bill] not as strong … as many of us would have liked, but it was a smart bill to pass,” said Sydnor, who voted in favor of the measure last month in the Senate. “I don’t think that youth should be automatically charged as adults. I don’t think the fight is over to get it there.”

The Senate voted 32-12 on March 6 to approve the measure sponsored by Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery). It came with bipartisan support, with Sen. Chris West (R-Baltimore and Carroll) listed as a co-sponsor.

House panel accepts Senate bill to limit offenses that charge youth as adults

The bill quietly received preliminary approval in the House on Friday and is expected to pass when it comes up for a final vote. But Republicans plan to offer amendments, which would send the bill back to the Senate and complicate final passage with just a week left in the 90-day session.

Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R-Allegany) said he and his colleagues planned to review the bill over the weekend and assess any proposed changes. Republicans main contention is that youth convicted of serious offenses, and those charged repeatedly, should face serious consequences.

“Unfortunately, in Maryland, we don’t have a great track record of the juvenile system either really preventing recidivism among juveniles, or really acting as a deterrent,” Buckel said. “Maryland’s crime statistics, in a lot of ways, have gotten better. One area that they have not gotten better is juvenile crime, particularly violent juvenile crime, appears to continue to be a significant problem in a lot of parts of the state.”

SB 323 would raise the age when a youth could be tried as an adult for most crimes from 14 to 16, but 14- and 15-year-olds charged with first-degree murder or rape would still go directly to adult court. It also says 16-year-olds charged with offenses such as first-degree assault and some firearms offenses would remain in juvenile court.

Smith’s bill includes language from another measure, sponsored by Sen. Sara Love (D-Montgomery), that prohibits youth charged as adults from being “detained or confined” in an adult prison. The only exception would be if no “secure juvenile detention area” is immediately available, in which case a youth could be held for processing in an adult jail, but for no more than six hours.

At their meeting Thursday, some members of the Legislative Black Caucus argued that the bill should be strengthened.

But Del. N. Scott Phillips (D-Baltimore County), who chairs the Black Caucus, noted that the discussion on the bill started last year with some “conservative senators,” advocates and state Department of Juvenile Services Secretary Betsy Fox Tolentino.

“This is not the end of the story,” said Phillips, who supports the bill.

‘Band-Aids on children’

Advocates who have followed the legislation all agree children should be treated as children, and if accused or convicted of a crime, have all offenses heard in juvenile court.

But passing SB 323 would be a first step toward helping young people, said Alice Wilkerson, steering committee member with the Maryland Youth Justice Coalition.

For instance, Wilkerson said the bill would require an annual report to assess youth in the court system. More specifically, the state Department of Juvenile Services, in consultation with the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy, must submit a report by Oct. 1, 2027, and by Oct. 1 thereafter, that includes the following:

The average length of stay for youth awaiting placement in a juvenile detention facility.

The total number of cases in which a juvenile court waives and declines to waives its jurisdiction; and

The total number of cases in which a court transfers the case to juvenile court.

“We firmly believe that by taking this first step, by demonstrating the success and more education about what this means to start a child in juvenile court instead of adult court, that we’ll be able to show that we can do this and should be doing this in all cases,” Wilkerson said Friday.

Not everyone believes the bill went hard enough to helping youth, especially when research has shown Black youth are more affected in the criminal justice system than their white counterparts. According to the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy in 2024, about 80% of the slightly more than 1,000 charges filed against youth as adults were Black.

“This was a missed opportunity to strengthen the bill to truly protect more kids from the harsh adult system,” Yanet Amaneul, public policy director of the ACLU of Maryland, said in a text message Friday.

“Current law defines children as individuals under the age of 18, and there are several areas where we recognize their development differences and diminished capacity and the law applies differently to them – like voting, consuming alcohol, or serving on a jury,” she said. “Yet the minute they are accused, not even convicted of a crime, we immediately treat them as adults.”

At least one legislator doesn’t want the General Assembly to return next year and do nothing to improve the juvenile system.

If there’s agreement among the legislature, advocates and other stakeholders that children shouldn’t belong in adult prison, “why does that even require a bill?” asked Del. Cheryl Pasteur (D-Baltimore County).

“We keep doing things one piece at a time. There should be things that we are paying for to support our children, so we are bringing out the very best in them,” she said. “We keep putting Band-Aids on our children. That’s not right at all.”

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: scrane@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and Twitter.