D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray nominated the former general counsel of the city’s troubled juvenile justice agency to become its chief, making Neil Stanley the fourth Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services director in the past year. Stanley has been serving in the role since taking over in December from Robert Hildum, who returned to his previous job as director of the attorney general’s public safety division in December after Gray made clear Hildum would not get a shot at holding the job in Gray’s administration. Stanley was hired as general counsel two years ago by then-director Vincent Schiraldi, who implemented a rehabilitation-focused model of juvenile justice that critics say opened the doors for juvenile delinquents to commit high-profile murders and sometime be murdered themselves.
As Gray’s nominee, Stanley will serve on an interim basis until he gets approval from the council. Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, who heads the committee with oversight of DYRS, said he’s looking into Stanley’s nearly three months as DYRS chief to see if he balanced law enforcement and rehabilitation.
“There’s a major discussion going on about striking the right balance between rehabilitation and controlling youth committed to the agency,” Graham told The Washington Examiner. “We don’t want to go back to brutality and neglect, but we do need to see how [Stanley] has philosophically approached the balance.”
Stanley said under his leadership he has advanced an electronic monitoring program launched in September to now include 135 youths and the number of absconders has dipped to about 5 percent of the agency’s 2,000 wards from 25 percent six years ago. He said he has focused heavily on the District’s nearly two-year-old youth detention center, New Beginnings. The 60-bed facility has often been overcrowded and home to frequent brawls.
“New Beginnings is the right approach and model. There have already been anecdotal improvements in the way kids are housed,” Stanley said. But, he added, “it’s too early to measure the back end to see how effective New Beginnings has been in reducing arrests and recidivism.”
Youth activist Daniel Okonkwo said Stanley’s approach will straddle the divide between law enforcement and rehabilitation.
“He’s not a pure public safety, law-and-order guy and he’s not a pure reform advocate,” said Okonkwo, executive director of D.C. Lawyers for Youth. “The agency needs someone like him right now who can bring the two sides together.”
Police union chief Kris Baumann isn’t sold yet.
“If he doesn’t get serious about violent juvenile offenders, then nothing is going to change,” Baumann said.
