Juvenile crime was a hot topic during the last Maryland legislative session, and a controversial criminal law from that session is now in effect. Since 2022 with the passage of juvenile justice reform, juveniles under the age of 13 were not permitted to be charged with a crime unless it…
The Maryland State Board of Education recently voted in favor an emergency measure designed to mandate school administrators be informed when a student has been convicted or charged with serious crime. The emergency measure came in response to a 17-year-old Howard County student being found with a loaded ghost gun…
The Maryland State Department of Education keeps detailed records of all school related arrests, and since the 2015-2016 academic school year has released an annual report with detailed data from all 24 state jurisdictions. The reports covers arrests made on school grounds or during off-campus school activities such as sporting…
The 2024 Maryland legislative session is creeping toward a close, but the details of numerous impactful criminal law bills are still up for debate. No criminal law bill has generated more attention than juvenile justice reform, which has been a hot topic for several years. Last year the General Assembly…
The 2024 Maryland legislative session is roughly two months away, but there are already signs that juvenile justice will be a hot topic when lawmakers report to Annapolis in January. The Maryland House Judiciary Committee has already held multiple juvenile justice fact-finding meetings in advance of the legislative session and…
Montgomery County Police recently arrested a 17-year-old high school student for various firearm offenses after he was found in possession of a loaded 9mm handgun on the public school’s campus. The student, who lives in Bethesda, was charged with possession of a firearm by a minor, possession of a loaded…
Last year Maryland lawmakers passed the Child Interrogation Protection Act, which requires law enforcement to provide detained juveniles access to a lawyer before being questioned. All detained suspects are afforded the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney under the United States Constitution, but juvenile defendants are…
Baltimore County Police have reported a 542% increase in juvenile motor vehicle thefts this year compared to last year, with some of the offenders being as young as 12 years old. The trend is especially concerning to police because the vehicles are often used to commit other offenses such as…
Four Baltimore teenagers and a 12-year-old were recently arrested in Ocean City for an armed carjacking that resulted in the victim being taken to the hospital. In addition to being charged with multiple felonies including carjacking, armed robbery and motor vehicle theft, the 19-year-old defendant was also charged with 13…
This past week in Annapolis a sweeping juvenile justice reform bill passed in the Maryland Senate, and now the bill heads to the House for debate. The 23-page bill proposes numerous modifications to the existing juvenile justice system, but perhaps the most noteworthy is the section that would eliminate most…