ANNAPOLIS — Some state officials said they support a bill to launch a probe into the deaths of hundreds of Black boys at a once segregated reform school in Cheltenham, saying it might help with healing.
The Senate bill would create a commission to investigate conditions at the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children in southern Prince George’s County. The commission would also “promote healing and reconciliation” through acknowledgement and recommendations for systemic reform, according to the bill’s text.
Lawmakers have raised concerns about the estimated 230 youths buried in unmarked graves at the site.
“There was never a formal effort undertaken to document these grave sites in a manner that reflects the dignity and the respect that these boys are owed,” said Sen. William C. Smith Jr., D-Montgomery, the bill’s sponsor. “I think it’s past time we started doing that.”
At a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, which Smith chairs, officials from the Office of the Attorney General and the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services testified in favor of the bill.
“I wish I could give them all a hug that children deserve, and that I know they must have cried out for in their suffering and fear,” said Tiana Davis, who leads the Juvenile Services’ Office of Equity and Inclusion. “While we can’t do that any longer, what we must do is say their names, tell their stories and make sure these horrors never happen again.”
One of the leading causes of death for boys at the Cheltenham facility and similar facilities in the state was tuberculosis, a Capital News Service investigation found.
Sens. Chris West, R-Baltimore County and Carroll, and Charles E. Sydnor III, D-Baltimore County, questioned whether the Attorney General’s Office was the appropriate agency to lead the investigation. If a civil suit was brought against the state, they argued, the Attorney General’s Office — which represents the state in civil suits — would be a witness for the plaintiff and an attorney for the defendant.
Deputy Attorney General Zenita Wickham Hurley said the office would set up “conflict walls” to keep the investigation independent.
She also clarified that the office would not conduct the investigation, but hire independent investigators with the approval of the commission.
“While this commission will not undo what happened, it can begin the work of acknowledgement, accountability and healing that they and their descendants have long deserved,” Wickham Hurley said.
A companion bill sponsored by Del. Jeffrie E. Long Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, faced no public opposition at a hearing last week. The investigation is also a priority for the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland.
Last month, the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services received a $200,000 grant from the Maryland Historical Trust for a ground-penetrating radar survey and restoration of the cemetery grounds.