BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates is hosting a community forum to discuss juvenile crime, as debate continues over proposed changes to how some teens are charged in Maryland.
Bates, in an interview with FOX45 News, said his office is seeing troubling trends involving juveniles as lawmakers consider the Youth Charging Reform Act.
“It’s almost as if the juveniles have heard in advance that this law is going to pass so they can do what they want, and it’s very scary for the community,” Bates said.
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“I think it’s important to explain what’s at risk, not just only for us, but the community, and also the young people,” Bates added. “I understand this law really focuses on the young people, but I’ve heard nobody, not one legislator, just talking about what’s going to happen to the community and the victims. And so we want to hear from the victims, we want to hear it from the community.”
The Youth Charging Reform Act would no longer automatically charge 16- and 17-year-olds facing certain offenses as adults. This includes wearing, carrying, or transporting a handgun.
Bates is against this potential change.
“Remember we wrote a 100-page booklet. We were able to look at individuals, young people who were transferred from the adult system to the juvenile system. A number of them were handgun cases. What happened to them? Within the year 2024, within 18 months, almost 30% of them had violated within an 18 month period,” said Bates.
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Bates also spoke to young offenders and the common progression to higher levels of criminal activity.
“We see it,” said Bates. “They kind of just grow from one to another to another and before you know it that gun that was just in their possession, then they have what they call an impulse control and before they know it they’re angered, they pull out that gun and fire it.”
Bates went on to say, “What’s also scary is that I thought this law would be for first-time gun offenders. But you could be a juvenile with your third, fourth, eighth, 15th, or 20th gun violation. And then other people like to say, oh, a judge will decide it. Well, that tells me these are our non-lawyers. Because the burden is so much more difficult on the state to move a young person from the juvenile system to the adult system. It’s almost nearly impossible.”
FOX45 News also sat down with Bates to discuss smoke shops. That conversation will air next week.
The Solutions Pact will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on March 18 at Digital Harbor High School in Baltimore City.
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