OUR PROGRESS
THE GOAL
To prevent children and adolescents from becoming involved in the legal system, uphold the highest standards of care when youth do enter the legal system, and ensure a platform for system-involved youth and their families to be heard.
HOW IT STARTED
The Maryland Youth Justice Coalition was formed in 2017. Since then our grassroots coalition has succeeded in passing several meaningful reforms. From passing the Juvenile Restoration Act (2021) and the Child Interrogation Protection Act (2022), to our most recent passage of the Youth Charging Reform Act (2026), the coalition is focused on results that continue to promote public safety by expanding protection to thousands of kids at risk of disproportionate harm.
THE YOUTH CHARGING REFORM ACT
We recently took an important first step towards ending the practice of automatically charging kids as adults through the Youth Charging Reform Act, passed in the 2026 General Assembly. This law limits which charges 16- and 17-year-olds can be automatically charged as adults, with the most serious offenses starting in adult court. It also incorporates the full provisions of SB296/HB389 (Limitations on Juvenile Contact with Incarcerated Adults), ensuring that by 2029, no youth will be held in adult jails.
THE CHILD INTERROGATION PROTECTION ACT
We successfully supported reforms in the 2022 General Assembly to ensure that Maryland residents 17 and younger are guaranteed the protections of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution (SB53) and an evidence-based omnibus reform package (SB691), endorsed by the Juvenile Justice Reform Council, that expands the use of diversion from juvenile courts, restricts the overuse of detention and confinement, limits terms of juvenile probation, and ends the prosecution of young children.
THE JUVENILE RESTORATION ACT
After years of advocacy, our Juvenile Restoration Act passed the 2021 General Assembly, allowing courts to impose a sentence less than a certain minimum term for minors convicted as adults, prohibiting courts from imposing a life sentence without the possibility of parole or release for a minor, authorizing individuals convicted as adults for offenses committed as minors to file a motion to reduce their sentence, requiring courts to conduct hearings on motions to reduce sentences, and requiring notice of the hearing to be given to the victim or the victim's representative.