Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice

12/07/2015

Baltimore City Water Industry Youth Career Mentoring Program

12/07/2015

Baltimore City Water Industry Youth Career Mentoring Program:
Began as a pilot in 2015. Nineteen young people ages 18-24 were accepted into Phase I of the program, 16 continued to Phase II and 15 successfully completed the program. Today, all 15 are employed in full-time jobs, 13 of them within the water industry.

10/09/2015

Fun, informative and opportunity driven Youth Fair and Public Safety Forum. Join us 14th October at 6:00PM at the War Memorial Building.

07/16/2015

There will be food available before the town hall starts and we will provide child care.

We have a panel that will consist of:

Dr. Tiffaney Parkman with the School of Health and Human Services, University of Baltimore
Nicole Doan, LCSW, Child and Family Therapist with the House of Ruth
Kenneth Braswell, Executive Director of Fathers Incorporated
Dr. David Pate with The Center for Family Policy and Practice
Joe Jones, President and CEO of the Center for Urban Families. (Moderator)

Attendees can RSVP to Gerald Ford at [email protected] or 410-246-1294.

04/28/2015

Please click link below for details on curfew.

http://www.baltimorecity.gov/emergency-curfew-20150427

04/28/2015

For those of you asking what you can do to help: Please contact your local neighborhood association, and/or refer to the google.doc posted below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1t2ZVonrU2SW2kqxAOcbDDRfiRgVGJQ8_J9UcFS9TdIU/viewform?c=0&w=1

Need Help? Please complete the form below to request volunteers. Volunteers: Please view locations where your help is needed here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sgvVWQkAO_OD20_veYNwWpkCbZKp9SMFEWhidcMqubg/edit?usp=sharing

03/23/2015

03/03/2015

Are you a Maryland resident and at least 18 years old?
If so, your community needs you!
To complete a 10-minute survey about prescription opioids and he**in in your community.

Click here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/mdopioidsurvey to take the survey and enter to win a $50.00 gift card.

You are being asked to take part in a research study that explores Marylander's perceptions, awareness and use of prescription opioids and he**in in your community. This study is being conducted by the University of Maryland Baltimore in collaboration with the Maryland Department of Health and Menta…

02/11/2015

Please contact the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice at 410-396-1021 to get more information about the daytime centers or to access resources.

12/31/2014

Lost Christmases of Baltimore City

On the last day of the year, we would like to thank everyone that followed the story of the Lost Christmases of Baltimore City. Along with our gratitude, we would also like to extend a request that all of you contact us by messaging us her to let us know how we can help you strengthen your community, build your capacity to heal yourself and your neighbors, and be a part of the effort to make Baltimore a safer and healthier city for our children.

12/30/2014

Lost Christmases of Baltimore City – Part 5

On August 1st, 3-year old McKenzie Elliot was getting her hair braided out on her porch. Tragically, a stray bullet from a violent exchange at the corner of the street took her life in the middle of this Friday afternoon. Like 2- year old Joshua Carter, senselessly and intentionally run over by a woman in her car weeks earlier, McKenzie had yet to have a childhood. Her death and then months of silence from the community about the identity of the responsible people speak to the culture of violence our neighborhoods are entrenched in and have become used to.

Within the month, Adrian Gilliard and Keith Powell, both 17 years old, were killed within hours of each other. Adrian was known as “Peanut” by his family. His grandmother Rose Gilliard was quoted by the Baltimore Sun saying, “The city can do more, but I feel like the kids can do more also," Gilliard said. "They can go to school, they can get an education and try to help keep these communities up. They're old enough. You can't put it all on the adults. You can't put it all on the city workers. Something more has to be done and these kids can be involved." Rose Gilliard’s comments bring home the need for community, particularly youth, engagement in violence prevention in the City.

What connects all these deaths is that they were our children and they were killed in our city. As Councilman Brandon Scott said, “We have to -- have to -- have people step up to the plate when something like this happens in our city because the police can't solve it themselves. People know what's going on. They call Baltimore 'Smalltimore.' Someone knows who did this to these children, and someone has to say something,"

12/25/2014

Lost Christmases of Baltimore City – Part 4

Oscar Torres was 16 years old and Shanizya Taft was 12 years old. They were killed in opposite sides of Baltimore City and their deaths were two days apart but what ties them together is that they are both innocent children connected in death because the same man has arrested in both of their killings. On May 24th, Oscar Torres was killed during a robbery. The car he was in was stolen from him. Two days later the suspect in Oscar’s death was spotted by the police and he tried to escape apprehension by running a red light and crashing into and killing 12 year old Shanizya Taft. Shanizya’s death was not ruled a homicide, but instead was ruled a vehicular manslaughter. Her death does not count towards the 15 juvenile homicide victims but it does not make her death any less of a loss. In the following days, while the police searched for the suspect who ran from his car after crashing into the car that Shanizya was in with her mother and 4 year old sister, her mother Shanell Pryor was quoted in the press saying, "He robbed me of growing up with her. He robbed her. I won't be able to take her to get her prom dress or take her to do this or that or nothing -- nothing else. All I can do is hold on to the memories that me and her had, but he robbed me.” Oscar was a budding artist according to press articles which talked about the vigils being held by his family in the days after his death. "We want justice. We don't want this violence to continue," said Ernestina Torres, speaking Spanish and using an interpreter as reported by Baltimore Sun. In both cases, the grief of the families was palpable as they tried to come to terms with the loss of their children.

Just a day after Shanizya was killed, another child was killed with a vehicle as the weapon. Twenty-eight year old Lucresha Mints got into an argument with 25 year old Latoya Skipwith and again, instead of resorting to more productive ways to resolve the issue, Mints decided to run over Latoya and toddler Joshua Carter. Both Latoya and Joshua were killed. In a split second decision, a 2 year old child described as a talkative and bright child who could recall the names of everyone on the block, described as a little boy who carried around his favorite blanket everywhere like Linus from Peanuts was dead. As reported by Baltimore Sun, on the day after the little boy’s death, Joshua Carter Sr. paced the sidewalk outside the New Union Baptist Church on West Franklin Street on Wednesday afternoon. He was still wearing a pink hospital wristband and concealing tearful eyes behind his sunglasses. Wrapped around his head was his 2-year-old son's favorite blanket.