SALISBURY, Md.- 2022 Maryland juvenile justice reform laws are under scrutiny from members of law enforcement like Worcester County Sheriff Matthew Crisafulli.
“Changes in the juvenile justice reform have greatly impacted crime in Maryland,” said Crisafulli.
Specifically, the Child Interrogation Protection Act has made the job tougher, according to Crisafulli.
“A child cannot make any statements to law-enforcement until a lawyer is contacted even if they said ‘No, my child wants to talk. I'm the parent. I want my child to speak to criminal investigators’, under the current reform they are not able to do that,” said Crisafulli. “Once the attorney is consulted, it’s obvious that they are not going to allow the juvenile to participate in questioning.”
The Fenix Youth Project in Salisbury is a youth advocacy group, who is heading to Annapolis Monday to convince lawmakers that the Child Interrogation Protection Act does in fact protect children.
“The interrogation act something that we really find important because sometimes when a young person gets stopped by police or they are also involved in investigation, we want to make sure that the police are able to make contact with a parent or at least an attorney so this interrogation act just make sure that we are protecting young people, so they don’t fall victim to justice system that we already know isn’t fair,” said Green.
Green says law enforcement should support this bill because it will lead to more accurate investigations.
“We want to make sure that we are not you know getting false confessions we’re making sure that we’re not just saying something just to get ourselves out of trouble because we find the young people will do and say anything to get themselves out of trouble or if they feel like as though it’s going to help them at that time,” said Green.
Green says instead of hindering law enforcement, it should help them.
“This is not something that is going to say oh it’s not going to hinder police to do their investigation. If anything it will let a police officer do their investigation thoroughly,” said Green.
More information on the Fenix Youth Project can be found here.