By Breann Harwood
The Maryland Sheriff’s Youth Ranch, located in Urbana, once served as a place where young boys could come to receive group home services. It provided guidance, support, and ultimately, life changing programs.
“The Ranch showed me a different side of life,” Cedric Spencer said. “It wasn’t all peachy, but it helped me to get my head on straight. I had guidance and I liked that I always had a roof over my head, food to eat, and they got me back in school. I lived there for nine months and at the end it showed me I didn’t want to live the lifestyle I was living before.”
The Ranch thrived for 41 years as a foster care placement for homeless, at-risk, and troubled children in the Maryland area. However, due to a lack of boys being referred to the Ranch because they were placed in foster homes instead of group homes, Board members decided that it was no longer feasible to sustain the Ranch. It was closed June 9, 2015.
Now, under the supervision of Interim Director Linda Clark, the Maryland Sheriff’s Youth Ranch, operating at “The Youth Ranch” will be opened in the near future with a new direction.
This new vision was spearheaded by Lisa Lowe, who is the director of the Heroin Coalition in Maryland. She knew of the need for additional beds for adolescent substance abuse treatment and shared this idea with members at The Youth Ranch. Once Clark learned about the glaring need, she discussed with board members at the Ranch, and they agreed upon the re-opening of the Youth Ranch.
“This was the closest thing to what we’ve been doing all along and what our mission has always been, so that was the new direction we decided to head down,” Clark said.
Instead of the adolescent boys being placed in the Ranch by the State of Maryland, they now can be privately placed by their parents and taken from in-patient substance abuse care.
Previously the program was paid for by the State of Maryland, but now the stay will be paid entirely by the resident’s parents.
“Right now, kids are coming out before they’re ready to go home,” Clark said. “If they do go home, they’re not strong enough to survive all the temptations that might lead them right back down the same path.”
The Youth Ranch will partner with Crossroads Center, a counseling facility in Frederick, to provide intensive outpatient therapy. The Ranch will provide the group home therapy, where the adolescents will be exposed to life skills training, additional education, recreation events, and special speakers that will come speak of the importance about getting and remaining drug-free.
According to the Maryland Sheriff’s Youth Ranch website, the Ranch will open with 16 beds the first year, 24 the second year, and 32 the third year. There is also hopes of opening an education center within the second year geared towards awareness and prevention of substance abuse.
According to WhiteHouse.gov, Maryland residents reported a seven percent past-use of illicit drugs. The site also says that, “the drug-induced death rate in Maryland exceeds the national average.”
The Youth Ranch aims to catch and address the problem early, before it has the chance to turn into a lifelong addiction.
“We see that we will fill a need for additional treatment facility space,” Clark said.
Clark also suggested that Frederick County alone could fill the facility because of the drug epidemic that is spreading across the youth in Maryland. The Youth Ranch will, however, accept boys from any county in Maryland, so long as they have the room.
Additionally, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said that nearly 80 percent of crime in Frederick County stems from drug-related issues.
Clark said that she remembers when Westminster High School was called heroin high school and that Westminster was the heroin capital of the United States. Through education and awareness for this issue, there became a shift against heroin and drug usage. However, Clark said, in the past five years it has went back in the same direction yet again.
“It’s hard not to pick up a newspaper and see that a young person has passed from drug usage,” Clark said. “We are heading in the wrong direction and it is becoming an epidemic in this state.”
While this new direction is aimed to change and save the lives of many adolescents in the future, the Maryland Sheriff’s Youth Ranch has had a positive impact upon the lives of previous residents.
Another previous resident at the Ranch shared a similar sentiment to spencer about his time spent receiving professional guidance.
“It [the Ranch] was a good place to try and get away from the street life,” Quentin Smith said. “The administrators were good people too; some actually understood you. They took school very seriously so I had to take it seriously too.”