Maryland Manual 1996-1997 Department of Juvenile Justice / 401

was allotted annually for two years In 1882, the Industrial Home for Colored Girls was established and
given tax exempt status (Chapter 291, Acts of 1882) The Governor appointed two of its eleven managers

These private reformatories served a public role as caretakers for the State's youthful offenders Two
of them, indeed, became public agencies of the State in 1918 The former House of Refuge, then known
as the Maryland School for Boys, became the Maryland Training School for Boys, the State reformatory
for white boys (Chapter 300, Acts of 1918) Its counterpart for white girls, the former Maryland Industrial
School for Girls, then the Female House of Refuge was designated the Maryland Industrial Training
School for Girls (Chapter 303, Acts of 1918)

In an executive reorganization of 1922, both training schools together with the Maryland School for
the Deaf were placed under the Department of Education (Chapter 29, Acts of 1922) When Maryland,
in 1931, established the Maryland Training School for Colored Girls as a reformatory, superseding the
Industrial Home for Colored Girls, it too came under the oversight of the State Superintendent of Schools
(Chapter 367, Acts of 1931) The State completed its acquisition of private reform schools in 1937 by
taking over the House of Reformation at Cheltenham as the State reformatory for black boys and renaming
it Cheltenham School for Boys (Chapter 70, Acts of 1937)

State Department of Public Welfare By the 1940s, though the State paid for institutional care for children
in public and pnvate institutions, services were not coordinated nor standards set for care Each institution
controlled its own admissions and parole Yet, staff and funding for parole were so limited that children often
failed to readjust to the community and were remstitutionahzed The State Board ofPubhc Welfare had more
authority over private institutions than over the State training schools which were full ofuntramable, mentally
handicapped delinquents and nondelmquent children who would have benefitted from in home or foster care
had such programs been available Maryland's child welfare services were desperately m need of coordination
to ensure that each child received appropriate care In 1943, the Maryland Commission on Juvenile
Delinquency recommended creation of a Bureau of Child Welfare under the State Department of Pubhc
Welfare, placement of the State's four institutions for delinquent children under a division for children's
institutions within the Bureau of Child Welfare, and establishment of an institution (somewhere between a
training school and prison) for incorrigible offenders between ages 16 to 20 The legislature responded the
same year by requiring the State Department of Pubhc Welfare to supervise both public and pnvate institutions
"having the care, custody or control of dependent, delinquent, abandoned or neglected children," creating a
Bureau of Child Welfare with a Division of Institutions within the Department, placing the State training
schools under the Department's supervision, and requiring the Department to establish standards for care,
admission, discharge, and after care (Chapter 797, Acts of 1943) The Division of Institutions oversaw the
State's training schools for delinquent children Maryland Training School for Boys, the Montrose School for
Girls (formerly Maryland Industrial Training School for Girls), the Cheltenham School for Boys, and the
Maryland Training School for Colored Girls The State Department of Pubhc Welfare also later administered
the forestry camps first established in 1955 for delinquent boys in Western Maryland Under the Department
of Juvenile Services, these camps were reorganized in 1977 as youth centers

Juvenile Courts In the nineteenth century, institutions were seen as the solution to many social ills
But for juvenile offenders, the existence of reformatories did not preclude the possibility of a jail or prison
sentence Minors who committed a crime still could be tried, convicted, and punished like adults In 1849,
approximately 8 percent of Maryland Penitentiary prisoners were between the ages of 13 to 18 In 1897,
some 42 years after the founding of the House of Refuge for juveniles, roughly 15 percent of prisoners
in the Penitentiary were between 12 and 20 years of age just prior to conviction, and 21 percent in the
Maryland House of Correction were aged 10 to 20 years when first imprisoned

Progressives, at the turn of the centurv, were concerned about youth m prisons They believed that children
were not criminals and that they needed treatment, not punishment Reformers helped establish the first juvenile
court in the country in Chicago in 1899 Baltimore did not lag far behind The Chanty Organization Society
lobbied for a Magistrate for Juvenile Causes to hear cases of minors under age 16 in Baltimore City The law,
passed m 1902, allowed the magistrate, who was a justice of the peace, to commit children awaiting trial to a
reformatory instead of jail, and authorized the Supreme Bench to appoint unpaid probation officers to
investigate the circumstances of each child brought to trial, represent the interests of the child, and have control
and custody of the child before and after the trial Court proceedings could be suspended and a child placed
on conditional probation under supervision of a probation officer (Chapter 611, Acts of 1902)

In the counties. Juvenile delinquency was less acute Nevertheless, in 1916 county circuit courts were
empowered to designate a judge who would hear, try, and determine cases of dependent, neglected or
delinquent children (Chapter 326, Acts of 1916) For the first time, the law defined a delinquent child
as a boy under age 20 or a girl under age 18 who had violated a criminal law, was incorrigible, associated
with thieves or other depraved persons, was growing up in idleness or crime, frequented gambling places,