According to a recent story in The (Baltimore) Sun, the 48-bed facility near Sabillasville "continues to struggle" two years after it opened. Victor Cullen is the state's only locked facility for troubled male youths.

The report cites a number of incidents and deficiencies at Cullen, including inexperienced and improperly trained personnel, high turnover in the staff, and poorly performing rehabilitation programs for the youths who are sent there.

According to the monitors, "(M)any of the youth admitted to Victor Cullen have histories of violent crime, lack empathetic skills, or have cognitive difficulties that make them inappropriate for this type of program." The program in use at Cullen, termed "complex peer-oriented treatment," depends on young offenders being willing and able to participate.

The center has seen several escape attempts in the last two years, the most recent and serious on May 27 of this year. During that incident, staff members were attacked by the juveniles, and several workers were seriously hurt. Moreover, 14 of the teenagers escaped. They were quickly apprehended, and 13 of them were transferred to other youth offender facilities; the remaining one was placed in adult detention.

Victor Cullen Center's limited population and special programs represented a new philosophy in dealing with male juvenile offenders. So far, it has not lived up to its promise. According to a July 7 Sun story on the new Cullen, "Its graduates have been arrested again at alarming rates," and the supposedly secure facility has proved not to be so.

After many years of a failing juvenile justice reform system, Maryland decided to try a new approach. In this case, the idea involved small facilities situated where offenders families live, so that they can be active participants in the boys' rehabilitation. The location and population of Victor Cullen don't fit that criteria. Of the two accused May 27 escapees from Cullen featured in the July 21 News-Post story, one is from Montgomery County, the other from Baltimore County.

Effectively treating juvenile offenders is a difficult, demanding science. We are not suggesting that the problems at Cullen and within the state's juvenile justice system as a whole are easy to fix or that those who work in this area have been derelict or incompetent.

However, the state's juvenile justice managers need to go back to the drawing board yet again, at least where Victor Cullen Center is concerned. It has been shown to be unsecure, and a danger to staff and potentially to the public. Moreover, its specific rehabilitation protocol does not appear to be working well with the youths who have been sent there.