Vincent Schiraldi, Maryland’s former head of Juvenile Services, who was pushed out over the summer because of his lenient treatment of criminal youths, joined New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team.
It’s unclear what role Mr. Schiraldi will have with the incoming mayor. The 66-year-old built his career partly on advising juvenile policies in San Francisco and D.C., then overseeing juvenile criminal systems as an administrator in the nation’s capital and Maryland.
The Washington Times contacted Mr. Mamdani’s campaign for comment on Mr. Schiraldi’s responsibilities.
Democratic politicians who fashion themselves as forward thinkers appear drawn to Mr. Schiraldi’s anti-incarceration philosophy.
In 2023, newly elected Maryland Gov. Wes Moore named Mr. Schiraldi as his secretary for the Department of Juvenile Services.
But DJS’ focus on rehabilitation over jailing under Mr. Schiraldi was seen as too forgiving, even for liberals such as Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, who cheered the secretary’s departure in June at the request of Mr. Moore.
Mr. Schiraldi’s exit came during a contentious spring in which juveniles accused of violent acts or crime sprees avoided time behind bars.
In May, Laurel police said DJS released a 16-year-old boy linked to more than 100 car break-ins just five hours after he was arrested.
The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office said DJS released a 17-year-old girl on an ankle monitor that same month after she was charged with beating a woman in a carjacking attempt. Prosecutors brought adult charges against the girl and took her into custody a short time later.
And a 17-year-old boy was granted supervised release by DJS in April after he was accused of knocking a man to the ground so forcefully that the victim suffered a traumatic head injury. Darrius Bunch, 33, died after his mother told Baltimore’s WBFF that she chose to take him off life support because he was brain-dead.
Ivan Bates, the top prosecutor in Baltimore, said DJS was jailing about 23% of the children handcuffed on felony charges.
He said the agency’s preference for seeking the “least restrictive means possible” often meant juvenile suspects were quickly released, and young offenders learned to treat their criminal behavior as inconsequential.
Mr. Schiraldi wrote an op-ed for The Baltimore Sun following his ouster to say he stepped down because too many juveniles, particularly Black boys, are charged and jailed as adults in Maryland.
“Since history doesn’t smile on people who say they were only following orders as they operationalized human rights abuses, I left, choosing to use my voice on the outside to push for change more vociferously than is appropriate for a departmental secretary,” Mr. Schiraldi wrote in June.
The former secretary went on to become a visiting fellow at the Pinkerton Foundation, an independent grantmaking organization. He has prior experience running 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.
Mr. Schiraldi will join anti-incarceration and anti-police advocates to help the Mamdani administration still taking shape.
One transition team member is Daniel Ades, the director of New York legal policy at the Center for Justice Innovation.
He penned an article this past summer arguing that New York City prosecutors should not charge most nonviolent misdemeanors, such as shoplifting, drug use or other quality of life crimes, and instead direct suspects toward diversion programs.
Another member is Brooklyn College sociology professor Alex Vitale, who wrote the book “The End of Policing.”
Mr. Vitale’s 2017 book criticizes the “broken windows” style of policing in which law enforcement cracks down on small crimes to deter more violent ones from happening.
In past interviews, Mr. Vitale refers to police as “violence workers” and says police departments are used by the powers-that-be to express their racist attitudes.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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