The District is spending nearly $1.4 million more to shore up security at the New Beginnings youth rehabilitation center to prevent juveniles from escaping — as several did soon after the facility opened earlier this year.
The Fenty administration last week announced it would shift $1.36 million within the Department of Real Estate Services “for construction tasks related to the completion of the New Beginnings facility” operated by the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
Sean Madigan, a spokesman for Mayor Adrian Fenty, said the majority of the money “is to cover the post-occupancy security upgrades and enhancements.” Exactly what is being done is unclear, although DYRS was given several days to respond to a request for more information.
The $45 million, 60-bed Laurel campus replaced the Oak Hill Juvenile Detention Center; almost immediately upon its opening last May, several youth escaped.
D.C. leaders put the onus on DYRS employees and Tompkins Builders, the center’s contractor. The cell door frames, for example, were constructed from aluminum rather than steel and “they just weren’t strong enough,” Ward 6 D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells, who has oversight of DYRS, said Friday.
Mayor Adrian Fenty and Attorney General Peter Nickles complained the center was replete with flaws, including doors that did not secure properly and windows “which were not secured enough.”
DYRS Director Vincent Schiraldi told the council of numerous “incidents with other youth getting out of their units inside the secure perimeter.”
In the aftermath of the escapes, Fenty ordered the installation of barb wire on the perimeter and bars on the windows, and Tompkins was “put on notice.” But at no point did they say how much the additional work would cost, or who would have to pay for it — Tompkins or taxpayers.
The escapes, Fenty said in July following an investigation, were “completely preventable,” the result of both “personnel and operations inactions” and failures of the physical plant. The New Beginnings superintendent was demoted, five officers fired and several more placed on leave.
New Beginnings was Schiraldi’s brainchild, emerging from his focus on rehabilitation rather than detention. The director is leaving in February to serve as New York City’s new probation commissioner.
“Nothing has really changed in terms of enhancements or security,” said Johnnie Walker, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 383. “Bottom line, they don’t feel anything’s improved. Bottom line, too, it was a bad plan from the get go.”
Tompkins also is building the District’s new psychiatric hospital. That project’s price tag has risen from $139 to $159 million after 162 change orders. Tompkins Vice President James Tolbert did not return calls for comment.
