In Maryland, there are 33 different offenses that can be committed by a young person that get them automatically charged as an adult. And for the 14th year in a row, activists in Maryland are working to pass legislation that changes that.
One of the prominent advocates of that change is the organization Jews United for Justice. As JUFJ Maryland Policy Director Matan Zeimer explained, Jewish values are a large reason why the organization has been fighting for this change for more than a decade.
“Jewish traditions teach us the importance of fighting for justice and of ensuring that every child lives a life with dignity, respect and safety. Maryland’s practice of automatically charging kids, overwhelmingly Black kids, as adults undermines our shared values of treating young people with the thoughtfulness and care that they deserve as human beings and as children,” he said. “This is why JUFJ continues to work alongside our partners to advocate for the end of this harmful, ineffective and racist practice.”
On Feb. 2, JUFJ and others gathered at the Maryland State Capitol in Annapolis to lobby for a new bill that would eliminate about a dozen of those 33 charges from the list that automatically take a minor’s case to adult court. The charges proposed to be eliminated represent an overwhelming majority of the total cases, and Zeimer said that the compromise activist groups have lobbied for this year means there is a good chance that this year is the year that change finally comes.
“Previously, we’ve rallied behind legislation that would have ended this practice entirely, but that hasn’t really gone anywhere, and this year’s legislation would eliminate this practice for about 75% of cases, so still a significant move in the right direction. Certainly not everything that we want, but it’s something that we certainly support,” Zeimer said.
Jewish supporters of the bill include members of congregations across the region and their leaders. Several weeks ago, JUFJ and some area synagogues hosted a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation in Baltimore to talk about the legislation and the change it would bring to Maryland.
“It was co-hosted by a large number of area congregations, and the topic was solely focused on this issue. It was an incredibly powerful event. Lots of congregations supported it. Lots of clergy supported it, and Rabbi [Rachel] Sabath [Beit-Halachmi] gave some very powerful opening remarks to that event to sort of help ground us in the moment and in our values and the purpose behind fighting for this legislation,” Zeimer said.
The legislation comes at a crucial time, as Maryland charged more than 1,000 youths as adults in the 2025 fiscal year and sends more youths ages 14 to 17 to adult court automatically than any other state except Alabama. One of the reasons this is so important, Zeimer said, is that being charged as an adult means that you’re held in an adult jail. Since youths aren’t kept with adults, they are often held in solitary confinement to keep them safe, which can have disastrous consequences on their mental well-being.
It’s also a question of state resources and efficiency. Zeimer said that it’s estimated that 85% of cases that go through automatic charging to the adult justice system are dismissed or moved to juvenile court later on, which he called “a huge inefficiency.”
Last week, Betsy Fox Tolentino, the acting secretary of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, testified at a hearing that the laws around charging youths as adults mean “it takes longer to get them the services, to work with them, to set up plans,” Zeimer said.
The day in Annapolis included visits with elected officials, community-building work, education and a gathering in front of the State Capitol to discuss the issue and make clear how important it is to JUFJ and all Marylanders.
The bill has to be passed by at least one chamber by March 23, with Zeimer saying that JUFJ hopes it is passed through the full legislature by mid-April, when the General Assembly ends its legislative session.
While the issue is about more than just the values of any one religion, for JUFJ, it largely comes back to Jewish teachings.
“One of the Jewish values that we talk about a lot when we’re working on this campaign is that there’s sort of this deep Jewish tradition that teaches that children breathe life into the universe, and to rob children of their adolescence through incarceration sort of sucks that air out of the world, not just for those children, but for their families, for their communities and for all of us,” Zeimer said.
