An abandoned gravestone at the Cheltenham burial grounds. (Photo by Isabella Carrero-Baptista/Capital News Service)
By Tiasia Saunders and Ela Jalil
The death count at the House of Reformation for Colored Boys at Cheltenham, a juvenile detention center whose violent past is under state investigation, was nine times that of its white counterpart, the House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents or Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School, according to a Capital News Service analysis.
CNS examined historical documents and known death certificates to show 243 deaths at Cheltenham compared to 26 at Hickey between 1860 and 1942, a period when the two facilities had the same number of residents. The CNS calculations surpass prior published estimates. No news organization has compared the Cheltenham deaths to the whites-only Hickey school.
Legislation passed by the Maryland General Assembly in late March would create a new special commission to investigate the deaths. On Wednesday, Gov. Wes Moore (D) unveiled a roadside marker at Cheltenham in southern Prince George’s County that “calls us to remember and defend those harmed by institutional racial violence.”
‘This is where they came to die’: Historical marker highlights horrors at segregated reform school
The governor also went to a wooded area near the reform facility, where many of the boys were buried in unmarked graves, and led a group of state officials in prayer. A group of Maryland Department of Juvenile Services officials began investigating the abandoned burial site for Black boys at Cheltenham in October 2024.
“Loving our state does not mean lying about its history. It means telling the truth — even when the truth is hard,” said Moore in a press release.
“What happened on these grounds was state-sanctioned harm, and acknowledging that is only the first step. My administration, in partnership with the Legislative Black Caucus, is dedicated to the work ahead — to find these children, learn their stories, and ensure they have eternal peace,” his statement said.
Examining Cheltenham’s conditions matters today, as the legacy of juvenile incarceration continues.
The Cheltenham Youth Detention Center, formerly the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children, and the Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School, formerly the House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents, were 19th-century juvenile detention facilities established to keep children and young adults outside of adult prisons.
Cheltenham was opened in 1873 in rural Prince George’s County as the first reform school for Black boys in the American South. The facility emphasized vocational training and a healthy environment, but in practice, it relied on manual labor and functioned as a form of forced labor or convict leasing.
Hickey, on the other hand, opened in 1855 for white boys in Baltimore and later moved to Loch Raven in Baltimore County. Hickey focused more on formal education and rehabilitative instruction.
Abuse was reported in each institution, and the state ultimately took over Hickey in 1918 and Cheltenham in 1937. The facilities were desegregated in 1961.
CNS previously reported on the causes of death, based on an analysis of 177 death certificates for inmates at Cheltenham, Hickey and juveniles at the Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup. CNS determined the 243 deaths at Cheltenham through an analysis of the facilities’ annual reports dating to 1873, as well as available death certificates.
The historical record has gaps, particularly in the 1920s, and there’s ongoing research at the Maryland State Archives to uncover additional deaths. The count of 243 is expected to rise as research into Cheltenham continues.
At the Cheltenham facility, living conditions were overcrowded and unsanitary, where boys with tuberculosis lacked proper medical care, according to grand jury and Cheltenham annual reports reviewed by CNS. Grand jury reports cited inhumane and inadequate medical care at Cheltenham.
Conversely, the Hickey facility had better sanitary conditions and more medical oversight, resulting in lower mortality rates. The white youth at Hickey also faced corporal punishment and solitary confinement, even as the facility received higher funding.
The Maryland Legislature has approved a measure to establish a Commission on the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Youth to investigate the history, operations and deaths of children at the former institution. In addition, the legislation will fund a survey and restoration of a neglected burial site in the woods near Cheltenham.
Moore is expected to sign this legislation soon.
“I think this bill can right the wrongs — that is to say, we recognize the mistake, that we had some racist policies, and we need to turn them around. We need to put some dignity or respect on these gravestones,” said Del. Karen Toles (D-Prince George’s), who co-sponsored the Cheltenham legislation.
At both the Cheltenham and Hickey facilities, the boys were subjected to harsh discipline and labor. The abuse and forced labor at the Cheltenham facility was far more severe, exploitative and deadly.
The Black facility had a system of paroling boys to service, which bound them to work for private white families as domestic or farm laborers until they turned 21. In some cases, these boys worked past their release date.
This system closely mirrored the conditions of peonage and slavery, according to Jason Mayernick, a Metro State University, Minnesota professor who studied the two facilities. In that respect, it resembled Maryland’s history as a slave state, extending coerced labor practices into the juvenile justice system.
Black youth in Maryland remain disproportionately represented in juvenile detention and continue to face unequal outcomes. According to a 2023 fact sheet by The Sentencing Project, which studies mass incarceration, Black youth in Maryland are about 8.7 times more likely to be placed in juvenile facilities.
Joshua Rovner, a senior research analyst with The Sentencing Project, said the juvenile justice system has dehumanized children of all races for centuries.
“We really have a basic problem with how we treat children who are incarcerated,” Rovner said.
Rovner said any number of deaths at a state facility should be alarming.
“If we see children dying, we need to panic about that,” Rovner said. “We need to be outraged whether that number is 100 or 10 or 1.”
Originally published at Marylandmatters.Org