Testimony in Support of Ending Auto-Charging of Youth as Adults in Maryland
The Sentencing Project urges the committee issue a favorable with amendments report on SB 422 and amend the current legislation to start all cases involving youth in juvenile court.
Related to: Youth Justice
The Sentencing Project’s Director of Youth Justice Josh Rovner submitted testimony before the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee urging the committee to amend Senate Bill 422.
As currently written, this legislation seeks to limit the number of youth that can, under Maryland law, be automatically charged as if they were adults for certain offenses. However, we ask the committee to amend the bill to end the practice of automatically charging people under 18 as if they were adults entirely and begin all cases involving youth (17 and younger) in juvenile court.
The Sentencing Project supports amending this bill to end the automatic charging of all of Maryland’s youth as if they were adults for three reasons:
- Charging youth as if they were adults harms public safety.
- Starting all cases in juvenile court is more sensible and efficient.
- Maryland’s automatic transfer law is unusually harsh and unjust.
The Sentencing Project urges the committee issue a favorable with amendments report on SB 422 and amend the current legislation to start all cases involving youth in juvenile court. We urge the Committee to advance the amended legislation as soon as possible. This evidence-based reform is long overdue.
Read the full testimony here.
