BALTIMORE (WBFF) — A city-commissioned review of improper payments and oversight failures in Baltimore’s SideStep youth diversion program has missed Mayor Brandon Scott’s promised deadline, while the city has declined to disclose how much taxpayers are paying for the examination.
SideStep was a pilot program operated by the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement that sought to divert young people accused of certain offenses from the justice system by connecting them with services and intervention programs. The city has said the pilot ended in 2024.
In a March report, Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming’s office said it found evidence that contractors associated with SideStep submitted invoices with altered amounts, resulting in overpayments totaling thousands of dollars. The office also reported a breach involving confidential juvenile information and deficiencies in the program’s documentation and oversight…