The Brian Betts murder and the linking of four of the District’s juvenile justice agency’s wards to the crime shook the political ground under the Mayor Adrian Fenty-supported reform efforts at the troubled agency, eventually leading to the reform’s demise.
The Betts murder was the latest in a string of high-profile crimes allegedly committed by Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services wards. Just two weeks before the Shaw Middle School principal was found shot to death, two other DYRS wards were linked to a mass shooting on South Capitol Street that left four dead and five wounded.
On the day the teens were charged with murdering Betts, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles ordered an investigation into DYRS. Two months later, the report that the review yielded gave Fenty grounds to throw out interim director Marc Schindler. He was replaced by Robert Hildum, the assistant attorney general in charge of the public safety division.
Two of DYRS’ top officials left with Schindler. They and Schindler’s predecessor, Vincent Schiraldi, had administered a five-year-long reform program focused on rehabilitating DYRS wards by placing them in community treatment programs.
Nickles’ report found the program too often allowed the agency’s wards to run free when the adult system would have kept them behind bars.
Since taking over the agency in late July, Hildum has focused on reigning in the system. He has been reviewing each of the agency’s 900 cases with an eye toward cracking down on wards who have committed violent crimes as he has sought to punish those who have absconded from community programs.
All of these changes have met Nickles’ approval, he told The Washington Examiner on Monday.
“I am supportive of the measures Robert Hildum has taken,” Nickles said. “He has placed the wards under a greater degree of scrutiny.”
Late last month, another DYRS ward was linked to a high-profile murder. Deandrew Hamlin, 18, was found driving the Jeep Cherokee stolen from Sue Ann Marcum’s home the night she was beaten to death. Hamlin hasn’t been charged with her murder, but he was participating — under DYRS’ direction — in an outpatient Department of Mental Health program when he was arrested.
