TOWNSEND FACES POLITICAL TEST AFTER REPORTS OF CAMP ABUSE

Events Spur Questions About Her Supervision Of Juvenile Justice Agency

Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has been described as the "crown
princess" of Maryland politics - a broadly popular figure who has avoided
any taint from a string of embarrassing incidents that has troubled the
Glendening administration.

But recent revelations of a pattern of abuse at the state's juvenile boot
camps have landed on her doorstep - presenting the possible gubernatorial
candidate with the most serious test of her career in public office.

As Gov. Parris N. Glendening's coordinator of anti-crime efforts, Townsend
is responsible for overseeing a juvenile justice department that the
administration acknowledges has had serious managerial problems.

She was the administration's chief advocate for the boot camp concept, and
the abuses occurred on her watch. A state task force found that the
beating, slamming and manhandling continued for months after she was
alerted to the problem.

"She's led a pristine political career," said Keith Haller, president of
Potomac Survey Research, a Bethesda polling and consulting firm. "So this
is kind of the first slight misstep. How she handles being in the caldron
could be a good indicator of how she can survive in the candidate's hot seat."

Townsend's critics have been quick to detect a crack in her previously
impenetrable political armor. Emboldened rivals say her supervision of the
department and her actions since the boot camp beatings were described this
month in The Sun raise serious questions about her abilities as a leader.

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, another potential candidate
for the Democratic nomination for governor, noted that the first reports of
abuse reached Townsend in August.

"It strikes me as odd that only after something came out on the front page
of The Sun did they say, 'We need to take a look at this,'" he said.

Duncan charged that the state's juvenile justice system is "in shambles"
and that Townsend shares much of the blame. "Townsend's known about it for
years, Glendening's known about it for years," he said.

Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a possible contender for the Republican
gubernatorial nomination, predicted that juvenile justice will be an
important issue in the 2002 campaign. He said Townsend will be judged on
her performance.

"If she's out there doing the political gig and not doing what the governor
asked her to do, she would bear responsibility," the Baltimore County
congressman said.

'Test of a leader'

Political analysts say that with three years before the 2002 election,
Townsend has time to fix the problems and the public has time to forget.
But she is clearly on the defensive about her handling of the crime
portfolio - a job that had brought her mostly favorable publicity.

In an interview Friday in her State House office, Townsend defended her
handling of juvenile justice issues, saying she and Glendening had taken
"immediate and decisive action" after reading the newspaper accounts of
systematic assaults against youths at the Savage Leadership Challenge, one
of the three boot camps in Garrett County.

"I believe the test of a leader is how they respond in times of crisis -
whether they take the responsibility that needs to be taken - and I think
I've done that," Townsend said.

Townsend and Glendening have accepted general responsibility for the
violence, but neither has acknowledged making specific mistakes.

After The Sun began publishing its four-part series Dec. 5, Glendening and
Townsend formed a task force to investigate the camps, led by Bishop L.
Robinson, former state secretary of public safety. The task force completed
a scathing report detailing the abuse in a week.

According to Glendening spokesman Mike Morrill, the governor and lieutenant
governor received a draft of the report at 10 p.m. Tuesday. By 1: 15 p.m.
the next day, Juvenile Justice Secretary Gilberto de Jesus, Deputy
Secretary Jack Nadol and three other officials had been forced out.

The governor and lieutenant governor have since retreated into what
Townsend calls their "zone of privacy" - refusing to discuss what she told
Glendening about problems at the department or whether he took her advice.

Critics say Townsend should be judged on how she has handled the issue
since August, when she was briefed by juvenile justice officials about a
reporter's questions about punching and slamming of juveniles at the Savage
camp.

"Clearly if there are allegations of criminal behavior, these kind of
things can't be handled internally. There has to be an independent inquiry
of some sort," said Richard D. Bennett, who ran against Townsend for
lieutenant governor last year and chairs the Maryland Republican Party.

Townsend says that in August, department officials gave her a toned-down
version of the allegations - referring to a single incident in which there
was "some roughing up" of children.

"There weren't the allegations of abuse and beatings," she said.

She said she ordered an end to physical abuse of juveniles but did not see
a need to order an investigation because she was told the Garrett County
Sheriff's Department was conducting a probe.

In a briefing document Townsend was given before an Oct. 13 interview with
The Sun, she was informed that a reporter had witnessed tactical officers
"grabbing kids as they walked off the bus and then slamming them to the
ground."

In the same document, she was told that the Juvenile Justice Department had
notified state police and social services officials and that an
investigation by the department's inspector general was under way.

Townsend says that shortly after reading that document, she and Glendening
ordered a management review team into the department and re-emphasized the
administration's policy against using violence on children. When that
action was announced Nov. 5, an administration spokesman said that it was
prompted by "a few little rumblings" about problems in the department and
that de Jesus and his staff were doing "a terrific job."

'Trust is broken'

Townsend says de Jesus and Nadol "misled" her by saying the abuse was not
systematic.

"I did not get the accurate information from top management, and we've now
taken action," she said. "When one is a manager, one relies on the chain of
command until the trust is broken."

The task force led by Robinson found that Townsend had tried to take
corrective action, but that the abuse continued until Dec. 3, two days
before the series began.

While Townsend says she did everything she reasonably could, children's
advocates say she should be judged by the results.

"Obviously the administration's response was not adequate because the abuse
did not stop," said Heather Ford, president of the Maryland Juvenile
Justice Coalition.

Leading advocates question Townsend's decision to trust de Jesus to act
effectively to protect the children in his custody. They say Townsend knew
by August that the secretary was incapable of running the department and
was feuding with his deputy.

Townsend says she had concerns about the department's top management and
tried to work to improve it. She rejects criticism that dissension was
allowed to go on too long.

"In other situations, I've worked to improve management, and it has
improved," she said.

'Zone of privacy'

Asked whether she had fully informed Glendening of problems at the
department, Townsend said they have weekly meetings. But the lieutenant
governor would not say what she told him, noting the "zone of privacy."

Townsend enjoys a political partnership with Glendening that has brought
her an unusual amount of power for a lieutenant governor. But that
solidarity has come with a cost. While many children's advocates believe
Townsend had been pushing Glendening for many months to replace de Jesus,
the lieutenant governor refuses to raise that point in her defense.

Nadol, the fired deputy and a longtime Townsend ally, maintains that the
lieutenant governor is the "good guy," saying she consistently fought
internal battles to increase the department's budget.

"We wouldn't have anything if it weren't for her," he said, adding that the
governor showed little interest in juvenile justice programs.

Glendening dismisses criticism of his lieutenant.

"There will be people out there who will tell you that they are writing
Kathleen's political obituary," he said. "They did that a dozen times
during my career."

Matthew A. Crenson, a Johns Hopkins University (http://www.jhu.edu)
political science professor who studies Maryland government, agreed that
the juvenile justice issue is unlikely to have much impact on Townsend's
political prospects.

Crenson said Townsend has achieved the status of "crown princess" in
Maryland politics.

"I don't know that the boot camp controversy is going to dislodge her from
it," he said.

But Crenson said Townsend's excuse that she didn't know what was going on
in the camps will not play well in the media.

"A political leader never gets off the hook by claiming not to be informed,
because part of the job is to be informed and not to be misled," he said.