ANNAPOLIS – Wayne Jackson traveled two hours by public transportation from Baltimore to the State House in Annapolis March 26, determined to attend a hearing on a bill that could limit his rights as a victim of child sexual abuse in the state juvenile detention system.
Jackson, who was abused as a juvenile in state detention, arrived carrying a sign with a stark message in all capital letters: “STOP JUVENILE DETENTION SEX ABUSE.”
Although he did not testify at the hearing, he spoke with the Catholic Review, emphasizing his demand for accountability.
“I just want them to admit their responsibility and be accountable,” he said. Once placed in the juvenile justice system, he explained, he became a ward of the state. “The state became responsible for how they treated us.”
Jackson criticized what he saw as an imbalance in justice.
The Child Victims Act “allowed a reach back for the Catholic Church, but when it comes to the state’s wrongdoing, they want to put a cap on it," Jackson said. "That’s not fair.”
He questioned why the law should create different standards for victims. “Everyone here has been affected. … The trauma changed your life.”
Before the hearing — delayed for more than two hours as delegates debated the state budget — dozens of victim-survivors filled the room. Many, including Jackson, stayed despite the wait. Alongside others, he sat on the floor outside the hearing room, unwilling to leave. As the hearing finally prepared to convene, Jackson reflected on the significance of being present. It was his first time witnessing and participating in the state’s legislative process.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, as he explained why he stayed. “I want to know the ultimate end and justification for it.”
When the hearing began, Del. C.T. Wilson, sponsor of the Child Victims Act that was passed by the Maryland Legislature in 2023, said he wants to ensure that the names of all perpetrators of child sexual abuse in the state Department of Juvenile Justice are made public.
“I want everybody that was an abuser – I want their name. I want that to be public record. If we as a state pay anything out, you as taxpayers need to know why we paid that out and if that person is still out there, they need to be held accountable,” Wilson told reporters March 26 outside a State House Judiciary Committee hearing room.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has published a list of clergy credibly accused of child sexual abuse since 2002, with frequent updates to the list. It was one of the first dioceses in the country to do so after the U.S. Bishops approved the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and its accompanying norms.
The other Maryland dioceses – the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington, Del. – post similar lists.
The state and public school systems do not publish any such list.
The CVA removed any statute of limitations for civil claims child sexual abuse in the state and set limits for payouts from private institutions, including churches and private schools, at $1.5 million. It capped civil claims for anyone abused in a public institution at $890,000 per incident. “Incident” was not defined in the law.
Now, Wilson (D, Charles County) is introducing House Bill 1378 to amend the Child Victims Act in this legislative session. It would lower the limit for state institutions to $400,000, the same as Maryland’s current cap for other torts against the state. It also changes the wording from per incident to per claimant, so that someone who was abused as a minor multiple times would have only one claim. This change would apply only to claims against the state, not to claims involving private institutions such as schools and churches. It is unclear if public school systems are considered county or state for the purpose of this law.
Anyone who has filed a claim against the state prior to Sept. 30, 2025, would be eligible for up to $890,000, but those who file after that date will be limited to $400,000.
Wilson, who chairs the House Economic Matters Committee, said he introduced the amendments to the CVA because of concerns that the 2023 law would cost the state billions of dollars. An attorney for the state’s county boards of education estimated in 2023 testimony that it could cost public school districts more than $3 billion.
Since the CVA became law, some 4,500 claims have already been filed for abuse of minors in the state Department of Juvenile Justice, and there may be another 1,500 cases in the wings. At the limit in the CVA, that could expose the state to $4 billion to $5.3 billion, when the state is running a $3 billion deficit this year.
Wilson, who was abused as a child, said he has fought for 10 years “for justice for survivors of child sexual abuse.”
“That fight, I’ve always said, was never about the money. … It was about the truth and justice and restoring the dignity of those who have had it stolen from them,” he testified at the March 26 hearing of the Judiciary Committee.
He said he represents the voice of the victims as well as the State of Maryland.
Wilson said three elements of HB 1378 will ensure the structure is fair without overpowering the state’s fiscal resources: moving claims after Oct. 1 to the Maryland Tort Claims Act and the lower limit; changing the per incident language to per claimant; and mandating an alternative dispute resolution program.
He said he wants victims to be able to have a chance to come forward, but also have the opportunity to redact their names when details of the crimes are made public. “That situation must be made public for both accountability and public safety,” Wilson said.
“I don’t believe that this undoes the progress that we have fought hard for with the Child Victims Act. But it was never about financial gain,” he said. “However, what has definitely changed is our understanding of the fiscal realities.”
As a victim himself, Wilson said, most of those abused as children feel alone. “Never did I think that the number of claimants (against the Department of Juvenile Justice) would be what they were. It was beyond my imagination at 4,500 and maybe more, because how would you predict that amount of malfeasance and institutional neglect?”
He mentioned that he was concerned last summer when the constitutionality of the CVA was challenged last year in court and said he “was in panic mode” that the Catholic Church might be protected if the CVA was struck down. The Maryland Supreme Court upheld the law. But Wilson said he never intended for the CVA to bankrupt the state.
Asked by the Catholic Review before the hearing whether it was fair for the CVA to set different classes of victim, where victims of the church and other private institutions could be liable for a higher amount than victims in a public setting, Wilson said it was fair because the state ends up paying when any case of child abuse comes up. He said the state pays to arrest, incarcerate and try abusers and then pays for treatment.
In his testimony, Wilson said, “Every taxpayer has to pay for each of these incidents,” adding that private corporations and institutions have “zero responsibility.”
“Those institutions and churches and groups never paid,” Wilson said.
However, since the early 1980s, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has paid more than $13.2 million to 301 victim-survivors for counseling and direct payments. Since 2007, the archdiocese has also offered a financial mediation program overseen by a non-Catholic judge for survivors upon their request for monetary compensation in lieu of counseling, resulting in 105 settlements for a total of $6.8 million.
The archdiocese declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in September 2023 to equitably compensate victim survivors of abuse while maintaining the many ministries of the archdiocese. That reorganization process is currently in the mediation stage, with three unaffiliated mediators helping to see if an agreed-upon plan can be developed by a committee of those who filed claims against the archdiocese, insurance carriers, and the archdiocese itself.
Del. Jon S. Cardin (D, Baltimore County) asked Wilson whether the bill would be constitutional since there is a disparity for compensation depending on when victims file a claim. Wilson said there could be a constitutional challenge but that he did not think it would be successful.
Cardin also pointed out that what he perceived as a possible racial inequity in the bill.
“If you look at the numbers, you might find that there are more children of color that might have been impacted by Department of Juvenile Services and other institutions in the state.” He said that by percentage, there may have been more white children who might have been affected by the church or other private institutions and asked Wilson whether the discrepancy is moral.
Cardin said he did not have a problem with reducing the state’s responsibility because it could create “a system where we may actually have the money to be able to provide what we can across the board. And it not being about the money, it's being about everybody's going to get their day in court. But do we want to be treating people of color (differently)?”
Wilson cut off Cardin’s question and noted that as a person of color who was a Boy Scout and goes to church, private institutions serving people of color have been implicated in such cases.
Cardin noted, “What I'm suggesting is we're treating people differently because of the institution from which they were impacted.”
Wilson said that the state has to pay anytime someone was molested through law enforcement, courts and jails.
“But the churches don't. They're not held (to) that. They don't have to … create any care systems.” He said that as a former prosecutor and now a defense attorney, a lot of people he deals with “were broken for a reason because somebody got to them first. And when the institutions do that, they have zero responsibility to take care of those people,” Wilson asserted.
In fact, the Catholic dioceses have implemented strict child protection and safe environment policies since 2002. Every member of the clergy, employee and volunteer who has substantial contact with minors undergoes safe environment training and a background check, about 30,000 people every year. More than 35,000 children and youths receive age-appropriate safe environment education each year as well.
Since 1993, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has had an Independent Review Board, made up primarily of lay people not employed by the archdiocese, to advise the archbishop and his staff on child protection efforts.
Ben Crump, a plaintiff’s attorney who represents thousands of victims, also testified about the racial disparity in the compensation plan, noting that 90 percent of those filing claims against the Department of Juvenile Justice are African American. Reducing the payout to these victims to $400,000 “is an insult to them,” Crump said. The abuse they endured in the custody of the state’s justice system is “not just a denial of justice but a sin before God.”
In a statement released after the hearing, The Maryland Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s dioceses and bishops in Annapolis, said that HB 1378 will not allow victims of child sexual abuse in a state institution “to have their voices heard in court,” as Wilson claims is his goal.
“That’s because the Child Victims Act uncovered a terrible truth: The largest employer of abusers in the State of Maryland appears to be the State of Maryland itself. Several thousand claims of abuse by State employees have been filed over the past 18 months, far exceeding those against any other organization in Maryland,” the MCC said.
“The reports of child sexual abuse within Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services and other institutions, and the harm to young men and women of color who represent the majority of youths placed under the state’s care, are heartbreaking.
“Instead of seeking accountability, the legislation seeks to increase disparity between victims, force arbitration and institute a closed-door state taskforce,” the statement said.
The MCC further said that as the church over the past several decades has faced its own painful reckoning on child sexual abuse, it urges state leaders to be accountable and transparent. This should include: independent assessment into the history of abuse in state settings, including causes and how it was addressed; implementation of reforms, such as safeguarding policies to ensure abuse by state employees never happens again; and survivor-centered support for those abused by state representatives.
The statement said, “Victims deserve parity. HB 1378 greatly exacerbates an existing difference in treatment for victims abused in state institutions and those abused in private institutions, by reducing the state’s own damage cap to $400,000 while keeping the cap at $1.5 million for private organizations.
It continued, “As we shared in submitted testimony, there is no principled basis for treating victims of child sexual abuse in state institutions differently from those who suffered abuse in private institutions.
“In 2023, legislators committed to an equitable approach for all institutions. The overtly unequal treatment in HB 1378 is not only poor policy for victim-survivors, but also unfairly targets nonprofit and religious organizations that have long served children in this state and have implemented strong safeguards for youth protection,” the MCC said.
D. Todd Matthews, an attorney at Bailey Glasser who represents plaintiffs, submitted written testimony to the Judiciary Committee opposing HB 1378 because he said mandatory arbitration would strip a vested right from victim-survivors. “Forced arbitration of sexual assault claims is, simply put, bad policy.”
He said attorneys for victims have approached Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown with attempts to reach a fair settlement, acknowledging that the state probably cannot pay the full amount of its liability. Matthews said the proposed amendments to the bill would have the unintended consequence of affecting claims from outside the Department of Juvenile Justice, such as the foster care system or private entities.
“Additionally, treating one class of survivors differently from those of another class, would function to deny certain survivors of their constitutional right to due process. For there to be one set of laws that applies to a child abused in a DJS facility and a separate set of laws that applies to a child abused in a clergy situation is fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional,” Matthews said.
(Christopher Gunty is the associate publisher and CEO of the Catholic Review, the media outlet of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.)
