Wilson Building Bulletin: Juvenile justice bill passes first vote

After a protracted discussion around the dais, the D.C. Council gave first approval this week to a bill from D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb requiring the city’s youth juvenile justice agency to actually … provide (and improve) rehabilitation services for the young people in its custody. 

The Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services manages the city’s youth jail (also called the Youth Services Center) and the placement of young people charged with crimes. YSC is only supposed to detain children pre-trial while they await permanent placement in a group home or facility with robust programming, but due to bureaucratic hold-ups, staffing issues, and overcrowding, minors are spending weeks and months at the jail without proper educational and mental health services; currently, the average length of stay is 81 days. 

The legislation was introduced at Schwalb’s request earlier this year. It would require DYRS to make a rehabilitation plan within three days of a child entering DYRS custody, and it would also allow minors to ask the court for a case review if they have not received services within 30 days. Notably, it would also create a permanent oversight oversight office to monitor DYRS functions, YSC conditions, and publicly report on the agency’s progress.

Dubbed the ROAD (Recidivism Reduction, Oversight, and Accountability) Act, Schwalb pitched the effort as a means of reducing the rate of re-offense among young people, and improving outcomes when they exit the DYRS system. 

“Since taking office last year, I have become increasingly concerned about whether DYRS is providing sufficient supervision and intervention to ensure that committed young people don’t re-offend,” Schwalb said when introducing the legislation.

The bill passed its first vote 10-2, with At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson and Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto voting against it; both agreed that changes at DYRS are sorely needed, but questioned whether the legislation would be enough to inspire that reform. 

Pinto raised concerns about moving oversight for the agency into the D.C. Auditor’s office. Currently, an independent body called the Office of the Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight (OIJJFO) monitors conditions at YSC and another DYRS-managed facility, New Beginnings. The office was established in 2021 as a part of a settlement agreement that ended decades of court oversight (DYRS was under court supervision for 35 years due to a class action lawsuit alleging abuse and neglect. Now, only four years later, DYRS has been sued again over alleged mistreatment and poor care of young people.) The oversight office was set to sunset last year, until Bowser extended it following criticism from advocates and councilmembers. 

Schwalb’s bill would make OIJJFO permanent by housing it in the D.C. Auditor’s office. But Pinto didn’t think the auditor was the right office for the role, and questioned why the council would want to hand over its oversight powers . 

“I’m trying to understand, as the legislative body that has responsibility for oversight over executive agencies, what the rationale is on giving a piece of our responsibility … to a totally different agency?” she asked.

Chairman Phil Mendelson pushed back, arguing that the level of scrutiny performed by the oversight office under Schwalb’s bill would go beyond the scope of council duties. 

He and other councilmembers expressed that while the auditor’s office wasn’t the ideal home for the oversight apparatus, they don’t have an easy alternative to swap in before they run out of time to pass the legislation during this council session. 

Henderson, for her part, wasn’t sold on the bill’s ability to actually improve conditions; it demands expanded and improved services from DYRS, but it doesn’t outline where those are going to come from, Henderson said. 

“Nobody is asking the questions in terms of… who is going to be providing the services,” she said during the meeting. “I started asking questions when the new director came in. They didn't have folks who were checking the required prescriptions and drugs for young people who were receiving psychotropic medications, they didn't have the social workers, they didn't have the therapist on staff. And this bill actually doesn't do that [hiring expansion.]” 

During the bill’s public hearing in the fall, numerous juvenile justice advocates testified in support of the bill, including Eduardo Ferrer of the Georgetown Law Juvenile Justice Initiative and the Public Defender Service. Bowser, who had earlier this year introduced her own version of a bill centered around youth services, opposes the bill. She called its components “costly, burdensome, and unreasonable,” in a letter to the council on Tuesday. 

It needs a second vote late this fall, and based on the council’s discussion Tuesday, it’s likely to undergo some revisions between now and then.