by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Recently, we gathered on a Baltimore street to break ground for a new juvenile justice center. As I awaited my opportunity to speak, my thoughts were both hopeful and troubled.
The community support for this project offered me hope, but I am a product of Baltimore streets. I carry the memories of too many dead children. I understand the fears of too many young people that America's "justice" means nothing more to them than dulling lives of poverty, punctuated by inevitable trips to a nearby prison.
Justice requires a community of opportunity in which all children - black and white alike - are treated equally, I thought to myself. It is difficult to teach justice to children who live in a less-than-just world.
During my years as a practicing lawyer, I learned that justice must be taught to young people by actions, not words alone. Too often, however, the actions of our juvenile justice system have taught young people - especially poor children of color - that justice in America is not impartial, not the blindfolded woman who holds the scales.
Justice can prevail over adversity, but only when people respect and act upon the truth. We know, for example, that largely as the result of targeted anti-drug policing, 2600 (72%) of the children arrested for violent offenses in Maryland during 1995 were African Americans.
Their overall arrest rate, moreover, was twice our proportion within Maryland's population.
Once arrested, a disproportionate percentage of Maryland's African American children are placed in "residential secure facilities," even for non-violent offenses. White offenders, meanwhile, more often receive probation.
Finally, we know that the anti-social behavior which leads to juvenile justice referral often can be traced to mental illness. Universal principles of justice demand medical treatment for mental illness, not punishment.
Maryland's Department of Juvenile Justice recently disclosed, however, that African American children under their care are far less likely than their white counterparts to receive treatment for identified mental health problems.
Do these facts about juvenile justice in Maryland teach our children that justice is blind, or are we teaching them that poverty, race, indifference and arbitrary power will continue to dominate their lives?
Justice requires that we search for the truth. On Baltimore's Gay Street, a more just response to the realities of our young people's lives remains a matter of survival, not simply an abstract ideal. Maryland's state officials have honestly acknowledged the truth about the racial disparities within the state's juvenile justice system, and, as a consequence, we now can work together to fashion a more just response.
From a federal perspective, I have joined others in the Congress who believe in fair and equal treatment of all children, regardless of race, to sponsor The Mental Health Juvenile Justice Act, legislation which would help states like Maryland provide necessary mental health and substance abuse treatment to all young people under their care.
Locally, the new Baltimore Juvenile Justice Center will encourage desperately needed community involvement and multi-agency cooperation.
These reflections had rekindled my hope by the time I rose to speak to the Gay Street groundbreaking crowd. As I walked to the podium, I recalled the wisdom of the 82nd Psalm, offered so long ago to another people in search of justice:
"Defend the poor and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver...them out of the hand of the wicked. They know not, neither will they understand. They walk on in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are out of course."
These ancient words reminded me of our duty to offer our young people a legacy of justice which they can understand, to teach them by our actions, as well as by our words.
My determination strengthened, I informed the gathering, "I must speak for those who are dying on our streets, for those who live in fear...."
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.