Vincent Schiraldi has stepped down as the head of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services amid longstanding criticism that he was too lenient on criminal youths.
Gov. Wes Moore announced Mr. Schiraldi’s departure Monday night and thanked the 66-year-old for his service. The Democratic governor named Betsy Fox-Tolentino, the managing director of juvenile justice programs for the Massachusetts-based nonprofit Roca Impact Institute, as the acting head of DJS.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, applauded the governor’s decision to remove Mr. Schiraldi as the “right one” and added, “now we can focus on the work needed to fix our juvenile system that has been flawed and outdated for decades.”
It is unclear if Mr. Schiraldi was asked to resign. He has told several media outlets that he stepped down to stop being a distraction from DJS’s work.
Republicans in the state Senate hailed Mr. Schiraldi’s exit as “long overdue.”
“He presided over widespread failures: violent juveniles released with no real supervision, repeated contract mismanagement, dangerous missteps in ankle monitoring, and frontline staff left to fend for themselves,” Senate Minority Leader Stephen Hershey, Upper Shore Republican, said in a statement.
Mr. Schiraldi defended his rehabilitation-focused approach to juvenile justice and chided lawmakers for relying on incarceration to address criminality.
“I think when you hear some politicians thumping their chests and breathing fire … that’s when bad policy happens, and that’s when lots and lots and lots of young Black men get incarcerated,” he told Maryland Matters. “That is the story of mass incarceration, and if we’re not careful, we will relive that history.”
Under Mr. Schiraldi’s leadership, DJS sometimes seemed allergic to keeping children and teenagers behind bars.
Last month, Laurel police said DJS released a 16-year-old boy accused of breaking into more than 100 cars in Anne Arundel, Howard and Prince George’s counties just five hours after he had been arrested.
The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office said a 17-year-old girl who beat and tried to carjack a woman in May had been released on an ankle monitor before prosecutors filed adult charges against her.
Also in Baltimore, a 17-year-old boy was granted supervised release in April after he was charged with knocking a man to the ground so forcefully that the victim suffered traumatic head injuries. Darrius Bunch, 33, died after his mother told WBFF-TV that she chose to take him off life support because he was functionally brain dead.
Ivan Bates, the top prosecutor in Baltimore, previously told The Washington Times that DJS was jailing about 23% of the children that city police had arrested on felony charges.
He criticized the agency for creating a “revolving door” for young offenders because the department prioritized placing juveniles under the “least restrictive means possible” over safety concerns for the general public.
Mr. Moore highlighted Mr. Schiraldi’s work in launching the Thrive Academy, a statewide rehabilitation course for troubled youths with criminal records. Mr. Schiraldi also reduced DJS’s job vacancy rate from 16% to 11% during his two years running the show.
In his decades-long career in criminal justice, Mr. Schiraldi has overseen the District’s juvenile system, known as the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, and has worked in New York City’s Department of Corrections to try to close the Rikers Island prison.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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