The disturbing events described in The Baltimore Banner’s coverage of the latest report from the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit (Staff failed to prevent sexual activity at youth detention center, watchdog finds, July 30, 2025) underscores, once again, why incarcerating young people should be avoided or used only as a last resort.

Whenever incarceration is utilized for youth, our state should hold the Department of Juvenile Services accountable for ensuring those in state care are safe and supported while in their custody. Other recent scandals in Maryland — including voluminous charges of sexual assaults in facilities run by the Department of Juvenile Services dating to the 1960s and the rediscovery of a graveyard of children who died at the Cheltenham Youth Detention Center more than 150 years ago — underscore a fundamental truth. Incarceration places young people in danger.

Rather than seeking to avoid it or utilize only as a last resort, today’s law enforcement and elected officials calling for more or longer use of detention are knowingly placing youths at risk — and they should be held accountable for their inhumane advocacy. Decades of experience and research have shown that there are almost always better, more effective and more humane alternatives to incarceration, as the latter leads to evident abuses and also greater recidivism. We can, and must, do better.

Alice Wilkerson is executive director of Advance Maryland.

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