BALTIMORE– In the months since Maryland eliminated the statute of limitations on child abuse claims, more than a hundred victims have filed a slew of lawsuits alleging horrific treatment at the state's juvenile detention centers.
State lawmakers passed the Child Victims Act with the Catholic Church clergy abuse scandal in mind after a scathing investigative report revealed the extent of the problem within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which filed for bankruptcy to protect its assets from the looming wave of lawsuits.
Now that the claims against the diocese have been relegated to bankruptcy court, the state's juvenile justice system has unexpectedly found itself in the spotlight.
At least 50 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services in early October, when the new law took effect. Instead of effectively rehabilitating at-risk youth, the department “locks them in a cage to become the prey of sadistic personnel from whom they cannot escape,” according to one of six lawsuits filed as a coordinated effort among four law firms.
Since then, more and more complaints have been trickling in, the latest of which was filed earlier this week.
“Incarcerated people are particularly vulnerable because correctional officers control virtually every aspect of their lives,” said Jerome Block, an attorney at the New York firm Levy Konigsberg, who is representing the plaintiffs in the latest case along with co-counsel Brown Kiely of Bethesda . .
“It's a very insidious, systematic form of sexual abuse,” he said. “The complaints filed so far are just the tip of the iceberg.”
Block said he hopes the flood of lawsuits will spur policy changes to prevent future abuse. However, the pending cases could face significant delays as the Child Victims Act faces a widely expected constitutional challenge that must be resolved first.
A spokesman for the state Department of Juvenile Services, Eric Solomon, said the agency is aware of the recent allegations and is reviewing the lawsuits.
“DJS takes allegations of sexual abuse against children in our care very seriously and we work hard to provide a decent, humane and rehabilitative environment for youth placed in the ministry's care,” he wrote in a statement.
The complaints target juvenile justice facilities across the state. Some have closed in recent years, but several are still in operation – including the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School northeast of Baltimore that attorneys called “a hotbed of sexual abuse” in a lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of 37 men who were incarcerated there as children. The complaint accuses the Department of Child Services of turning a blind eye to a “culture of abuse” within the detention centers for decades.
According to the complaint, Hickey School staff members routinely entered children's cells at night and raped them, sometimes in groups. Many of the victims faced physical violence and threats, including solitary confinement and reports of adverse behavior that could prolong their incarceration. Some abusers would offer the children bribes such as snacks, cigarettes and more time away from home, the complaint said.
In another lawsuit filed last week, 20 women alleged abuse at a detention center for girls in Laurel, Maryland, which the state closed last year amid ongoing efforts to improve the juvenile justice system and prevent detained children from serving hours of had to be sent home.
“Many girls who simply needed help went straight from difficult home lives into a traumatizing, prison-like environment where they were regularly sexually abused,” the lawsuit alleges.
Previous complaints included the Baltimore juvenile detention center.
At the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, “Any attempt to report the conditions of the facility is quickly discouraged by bribery and, failing that, threats and violence,” wrote attorneys from four law firms, including Bailey Glasser.
When the Child Victims Act was drafted, lawmakers assumed its constitutionality would be questioned and included a provision that would suspend pending lawsuits until the Maryland Supreme Court can decide whether the law is constitutional. The Archdiocese of Washington, which covers parts of Maryland, filed such a challenge earlier this year in response to a lawsuit alleging clergy abuse.
Under the previous law, victims of child sexual abuse could not file charges after age 38.