A D.C. Council member didn’t hold back at a recent oversight hearing on the troubled agency in charge of housing youth involved with the District’s juvenile justice system.
“I think what is happening at DYRS is dangerous, and you’re failing on your mission,” Councilmember Zachary Parker told Sam Abed, director of D.C.’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), referring to violence, overcrowding and other problems inside the facility.
On the day the hearing was underway, so was an assault at the Youth Services Center (YSC) involving 11 young people, the I-Team found; violence so bad one youth was hit in the head with a stapler and another suffered broken bones around one eye.
In the past, an independent office would have investigated. But earlier this fall, the Office of Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight (OIJJFO) – which oversaw conditions at YSC starting in 2021 – effectively was shut down as D.C. leaders defunded the office in this year’s budget.
“They were helping the public see, they were helping advocates see, exactly what was happening behind these locked doors,” said Joshua Miller of Open City Advocates, which provides legal defense and support to young people locked up in D.C.
Miller is among those concerned about the end of this independent oversight, which published routine data that he says helped shed light on overcrowding, assaults and quality of services at the facility.
“This is not the right time to get rid of independent oversight. As things get worse, we need more oversight and not less,” Miller said.
The Youth Services Center, the agency’s main housing facility, has been overcrowded every night for nearly a year and frequently before then, too, according to the oversight office and DYRS data.
On average, at least one young person is injured by assault there every day for every month of the past year except for August, when just 25 assaults were reported for the month.
The day Abed testified before the D.C. Council was no different.
“Transparency is essential for maintaining public trust,” he said.
On the day of the hearing, court records show a fight broke out in which several young people allegedly beat three other young people. One victim was hit and kicked so badly he broke bones around his eye and lost consciousness when he hit his head on a table. Two of the victims were taken to Children’s National Hospital; a third was treated at YSC.
Court records indicate that, after police were called to investigate the following day, eight suspects were charged with new crimes.
The I-Team learned about it only after being tipped off to those court records.
“We are considering a world where the only people who have oversight over DYRS is the agency itself,” Miller said. “Its failures indicate that it can’t do that,” he added.
News4 asked Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office about the decision to close the office. The mayor’s office directed DYRS to respond instead.
In that statement, DYRS — which declined an interview request — noted the watchdog was only intended to monitor DYRS for three years and some of those responsibilities are now handled by the Office of the D.C. Auditor, subject to a funding source.
The statement from DYRS didn’t include, however, that the auditor wasn’t given any funding to do this work and therefore it’s not continuing.
The statement also noted DYRS receives oversight from the D.C. Council, the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia’s Juvenile Services Program.
The former watchdog declined an interview, but according to D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson, the OIJJFO is completing transition work, including DYRS publishing data that had previously been under the OIJJFO’s control.
She said her office is beginning an audit of DYRS’s community-based placements and residential facilities and expects to complete the audit in roughly 10 months.
Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Katie Leslie, shot by Steve Jones and Jeff Piper, edited by Jones
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