It does not come as a shock to me and state workers to hear about the
troubles at the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School or at the Maryland
Department of Juvenile Services. What is surprising is that our new
governor is alledgely the cause of these long t erm problems. What also
is surprising is that the public has been so unaware of the condition
of the Juvenile Services program. This is nothing new.

The State of Maryland thought that by turning the Hickey School over to
a private firm, all of it s problems would magically go away. What the
State has done is turn over these children to the highest bidder in an
effort to hide its problems. The Hickey School is a resource owned by
the taxpayers. Its operation should never have be handed over t o an
outfit that wants to make money off children. Shame on those leaders
who came up with this scheme. Shame on us, the taxpayers, for letting
them do it. It was not the Ehrlich administration that put us in this
situation.

As long as state gov ernment insists on using what I call the Jiffy Lube
approach to these children, these incidents will continue to go on at
state facilities.

Our new union which represents employees at the Maryland Department of
Juvenile Services and the Departmen t of Public Safety and Correctional
Services recommends that state lawmakers break with tradition and stop
sweeping these incidents under the rug.

We recommend full funding of the Department of Juvenile Services.
Salaries of staff will have to be raised. Additional staff will have to
be hired. Training programs for staff will have to be increased.
Supervisors will have to start asking for input from staff members.
Additional facilities will have to be acquired or constructed.

Yes, this c osts money. But we are talking about children! Isn't this a
worthy investment in our future? I believe so.The taxpayers can spend
money now to change these children or they can pay even more money to
have them live in a correctional facility as adul ts.

Let's give the Ehrlich administration some time to fix the problem.


Michael Brice
Baltimore

Mr. Brice is a chief shop steward with MACSE, The Maryland Association of Correctional & Security Employees.c