Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry has taken another swing at D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray this week in their ongoing squabble over funding security at the much maligned New Beginnings youth detention facility. In response to a letter from Gray telling Barry to stop stalling and allow funding for security enhancements at the center, Barry essentially said, Hey, I’m not the problem — you are.
In a memo sent on Monday, Barry said it is Gray’s “slow reaction to critical security breaches that is causing a 10 month delay in necessary repairs to the facility.”
“The Mayor has known about the urgent need for these security repairs since he took office in January of this year,” Barry said. “The request for these security repairs was made in January by the current Department of Youth and Rehabilitative Services Director Neil Stanley and yet, the initial funding was not approved until June.”
According to Barry, the big problem here is that kids are popping the locks off their doors and that’s leading to a lot of the escape problems (more than a half-dozen this year). Barry also notes that the $450,000 DYRS requested to repair the doors on individual youth rooms does not need to be approved by council (implying he’s not the one slowing up that progress). Apparently, the custom fabrication of those doors is what’s slowing up delivery until October.
The spat started when DYRS requested $2.9 million for security enhancements, including for the outside facility doors, gymnasium doors, and security cameras. Barry filed a disapproval and asked for more information on the proposed security enhancements and for information on the agency’s “plans to keep youth secure in their rooms after curfew hours.”
