repeatedly warned her superiors that a serious staffing shortage was creating
unsafe conditions for youths and employees, records show.
But memos from Phyllis D.K. Hildreth pleading for more staff went largely
unheeded by the Ehrlich administration – until independent monitors weighed in
this week with a blistering report about the $60 million facility.
Asked why the administration had not addressed staffing and other problems
earlier, a spokesman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said last night: “Those
are good questions. The governor has been very clear that he wants answers to
those questions. And he has been clear that he will hold senior leadership
accountable.”
The Office of the Independent Juvenile Justice Monitor reported this week
that it found more than 100 youths being held in a place with staff for less
than half that number. The report portrayed an institution in chaos – with
youths attacking each other and workers, setting fires, climbing walls to
escape and attempting suicide.
In a series of increasingly desperate memos before she resigned in June,
Hildreth warned that she feared the lack of staffing would lead to just such
problems at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center.
“Our data and our experience tell us the same thing: We cannot safely
operate detention programming for 72-75 youth with staffing levels designed
for 48 youth,” she wrote in a March memo to top Department of Juvenile
Services administrators.
‘Dangerous conditions’
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The understaffing, she said, was creating “stressful, dangerous
conditions.”
Two months later, the center’s population had grown to 107 youngsters,
according to a May 24 memo that Hildreth sent to the department’s personnel
director and others. The center had enough beds for those youngsters, but not
enough workers to supervise them.
“The situation is serious,” Hildreth wrote. “I am concerned about our
ability to keep youth and staff physically safe.”
She pointed out that most of the workers were women and she was concerned
for their well-being guarding sometimes unruly young men. Often, only one
staff member would be in a locked, 12-bed unit to supervise a dozen youths,
most of them age 15 to 17, she said.
A 12-bed unit should have two supervisors, she said, and some situations
are hard to control even with that staffing level.
“I am requesting immediate assistance to identify staff resources required
to bring us within the range of safe operations,” Hildreth wrote in her May 24
memo.
In an interview last week with The Sun, Hildreth said she resolved to
resign soon after because the staffing issues weren’t being addressed.
Juvenile Services Secretary Kenneth C. Montague Jr. declined to comment for
this article. He canceled an interview with The Sun that had been scheduled
for yesterday. LaWanda Edwards, a spokeswoman for the agency, also declined to
comment. She said any questions would be addressed at a news conference at
11:30 a.m. today at the center.
But Henry Fawell, a spokesman for the governor, said last night that the
administration is moving to address concerns about the center.
Making improvements
“Governor Ehrlich expects dramatic improvement in the facility, and he
expects it now. His message was unmistakable: We will do whatever it takes to
improve conditions at the facility.” The administration announced a plan
Wednesday to improve staffing, and further details are expected today.
Hildreth, a lawyer, had once been chief counsel for the Maryland Office of
the Public Defender and later was a deputy secretary at the Department of
Juvenile Justice under Gov. Parris N. Glendening.
She left along with other Glendening appointees with the change of
administrations, but Montague brought her back in April 2003 to head the new
juvenile detention center in Baltimore, which began housing youths in October.
The 144-bed center, located on North Gay Street at Fallsway, is designed to
house teen-age boys who have been arrested in Baltimore and are awaiting trial
on charges such as theft, drug dealing and assault.
In announcing Hildreth’s appointment, Montague described her as “extremely
capable.” He said “her strong ties to the community make her the ideal
candidate to carry out the governor’s and my vision for the delivery of
services to children under the care of the juvenile justice system.”
Several legislators and advocates contacted yesterday faulted Ehrlich for
not addressing the staffing problems when Hildreth began raising them last
spring.
Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden, a Baltimore Democrat who recommended Hildreth’s
appointment, said he was surprised she wasn’t given the resources she needed
to do the job properly.
“If it had been done, that would have prevented the problem we’re in right
now,” McFadden said.
He said he knows Hildreth informed Montague about her concerns and is
confident Montague would have shared them with the governor.
“I hope [Ehrlich] will put the same kind of energy behind this issue as he
has with slots,” McFadden said. “I think that he really needs to do more,
given the fact that [juvenile services] was one of his highest priorities
during the campaign.”
Overdue changes
Judge Martin P. Welch, who is in charge of Baltimore’s juvenile court, said
it seems the only time changes are made is when there is a crisis. “I’m
certainly pleased with the improvements they plan, but I regret that they were
not done much, much sooner,” he said.
Welch said the detention center held 92 youths yesterday, down from 110 on
Wednesday, as youths who had been sentenced but were awaiting placement
elsewhere were transferred to group homes or other juvenile facilities.
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Cameron E. Miles, community outreach director for the Maryland Juvenile
Justice Coalition, said it should not take a scathing independent monitor’s
report to get action.
“It took something that I guess brought some kind of embarrassment for them
to step up and do what’s right,” Miles said. “They should have stepped up and
done what’s right a long time ago.”