Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) on the floor of the Senate on April 5. He said he plans to reintroduce a bill this year that would reduce automatic referrals of juveniles to the adult court system. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
A Maryland commission is recommending that the state do away with its practice of automatically charging youth as adults for certain crimes, saying it doesn’t improve public safety and can harm the youth.
The nine-page, heavily footnoted report from a workgroup of the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging and Best Practices is the first recommendation, since the commission was overhauled last year…