As part of my senior practicum, I'm interning as a social worker at the Office of the Public Defender in Baltimore City. I work with juvenile boys in detention. As some of you may have heard, our Baltimore City Detention Center (an adult facility) has gotten some serious heat after a number of correctional officers were assisting inmates smug contraband into the facilities. The jail was essential run by gang members who recruited mainly female guards in their illegal mission. Individuals involved could make $8,000 in a two-week period for selling drugs inside the jail at rate exponentially higher than what they sell for on the streets. The problems are endless but the one that is especially alarming is that we are sending the youth of Baltimore City to this flawed adult system. Right now, I have a 17-year-old client awaiting trial at BCDC housed with the general public; drug smuggling, gang members included. When I visited him, he had bruises and swelling on his face and neck. He described how inmates had knives under their bunks, how there were areas in which guards were not present like the showers making it an especially dangerous area for young men, he doesn't get visitors for the first 60 days, he has no pillow and says the facility is filled with bugs. To make things worse, correctional officers are not training in adolescent development or treatment. Therefore, to "protect" juveniles in adult prison systems, guards often put youth in solitary confinement which brings about a whole different set of issues. Below are some articles related to this matter that I find very insightful. They explain not only what is going on in our adult detention center but also the affects and consequences of sending juvenile into a shark tank essentially.