The Maryland Office of the Public Defender said on Thursday that a malfunctioning heating system at a state youth detention center has left more than 60 children “extremely cold and at risk.”

The detention center is located on Greenmount Avenue in downtown Baltimore and houses children under the age of 18 who have been charged as adults and are awaiting criminal trials.

The state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which runs the center, issued a statement in response, saying it is “actively addressing the heating system in our male housing units.”

“We can say with certainty, though, that current indoor temperatures are not dangerous and at no point have youths in our custody experienced medical issues related to the colder temperatures,” spokesperson Keith Martucci said in the statement.

The public defender’s office said in a statement that the heat is “not operational in most of the living quarters.” According to the office, children interviewed by defense attorneys have reported colder temperatures at night, and said they were being provided with “thin, hospital-like blankets for warmth.”

The attorneys also said the incarcerated children are “spending almost all hours of the day in cramped cells deprived of school and physical activity” and that facility leadership has indicated that they anticipate receiving parts needed to fix the heating system early next week.

The conditions have already “been going on for over a week,” they said.

“This is unconscionable,” Public Defender Natasha Dartigue said in her office’s statement. “Baltimore City Public Schools closes when indoor temperatures are this low because we recognize that children cannot learn, cannot thrive, cannot be safe in those conditions.”

Martucci said that staff at the detention center have provided portable electric heaters and are rotating the devices “to ensure safe and adequate warmth.”

He said the department and the city’s public school system “are working to obtain” additional heaters and that maintenance staff “are verifying the electrical load of the heaters to ensure that the electrical circuits are not overloaded.”

When the temperature dropped below 68 degrees yesterday evening, classes at the facility were canceled for Thursday, Martucci said.

The heating problems at the youth detention center come as the corrections department is dealing with a substantial maintenance backlog in its facilities across the state. Last year, for example, an HVAC breakdown led to triple-digit temperatures at the Maryland Reception, Diagnostic and Classification Center. On Thursday, the corrections department announced it was imminently transferring all detainees out of that facility, citing a third-party engineering report that conditions were “not consistent with public safety.”

In its statement, the public defender’s office said it was preparing to file motions in court in response to the situation at the youth detention facility that would “modify the conditions of detention.” The office vowed to “use every legal tool at its disposal.”