By William Carter & Taylor Bennett | WBAL NewsRadio | April 11, 2024 | Original Source
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger is pleased to have juvenile law reform pass out of the Statehouse this year.
Shellenberger spoke with C4 and Bryan Nehman on Wednesday morning regarding what it will mean when it comes to prosecuting juveniles with the passing of House Bill 814.
He said the bill “added a number of handgun charges to the crimes that 10, 11, 12-year-olds can be charged with. It also added committing a sex offense in the third degree. And, importantly, it expanded a little bit on the issue of car theft.”
With the passing of the bill and the Children in Need of Supervision (CINS) program, Shellenberger added that it will allow the law to “force parents into the courtroom.”
The juvenile justice law also would require a pre-detention hearing, while in DJS custody, for juveniles charged with a first-time gun offense and Shellenberger says that gives prosecutors more power.
The bill expands the length of time juveniles can be on probation.
Shellenberger also said that “with sex offenses, juveniles can’t go back into a regular school. They have to go back to a special school,” citing a case where a student was on the sex offender registry but attended a regular school in Baltimore City.