Tasha Williams was not surprised when a teenage offender jumped the fence at D.C.’s new reform school in Laurel, Md.
“We will face a major breach in security,” Williams, the chairwoman of the guards union at the facility, wrote in a memo last Thursday. “This was never intended to be a Secured Facility.”
The brand-new youth jail opened Friday to the tune of $46 million. An inmate shimmied up a pole, leapt to a roof and jumped to freedom Saturday. Apparently, no one read Williams’ Thursday memo: “This is getting ready to be a disaster!”
The District’s new reform school was a disaster from the beginning, starting with its name: New Beginnings Youth Development Center. George Orwell could have used it as an exquisite example of newspeak, from his novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
Why call a juvenile jail “New Beginnings Center”? That’s a great name for a yoga ashram in Big Sur, Calif., but the kids who wind up at the 60-bed detention center have reached the end of the road. These are the worst young thugs; they have committed violent crimes such as armed robbery or assaults with intent to kill. Before they make a new beginning, they have to learn the consequences of their actions.
Vincent Schiraldi, head of the Department of Youth Rehabilitative Services, called it the “anti-prison.” Sounds cute — in a touchy-feely, love-the-one-you’re-with kind of way — but what young, hard-core criminals need is a hard-core jail.
Problem No. 2: D.C.’s juvenile crime agency has 740 kids under its control; there are only 60 beds in this new “campus.” What happens to the other 680 who have stolen cars, beat up people, sold drugs? Most will be placed in group homes around the nation’s capital. These homes are notorious sieves.
“The crime rate will surge greatly in the next month or so,” Williams wrote in her memo. “I see that DYRS has no concerns for Public Safety.” She was right about the escape from the new jail; let’s hope she’s wrong about the crime rate.
No doubt Vinnie Schiraldi has one of the most difficult jobs in all of D.C. He and his agency are responsible for taking care of the city’s juvenile detritus. Kids come to him from shattered homes, drug-addicted moms, jailed dads, filthy apartments, lawless lives. He is a dedicated reformer. Mayors such as Marion Barry neglected his agency for decades; it created the desolate reform school known as Oak Hill, close to the new facility. Oak Hill was a breeding ground for adult criminals.
Schiraldi has had successes. His agency says fewer kids are returning to thug lives and getting arrested. Fewer have escaped. I have seen the energy and commitment of educators with the See Forever Foundation at Oak Hill’s Charter School.
But first — do no harm. Keep the place secure. Schiraldi promised to plant rose bushes to deter jumpers. Mayor Adrian Fenty deployed Allen Lew, his construction boss, to secure the new jail.
Let’s hope Lew will be the adult in the room. Williams and the other guards deserve one.
