If the newly appointed interim director of the District’s troubled juvenile justice agency wants to become its permanent chief, he must show Mayor Adrian Fenty that he can strike a balance between keeping dangerous offenders behind bars and allowing young criminals back into the community for rehabilitation, Fenty told The Washington Examiner.
The mayor fired the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services previous interim director last month after at least 10 of the agency’s wards had been accused of murder and at least six others had been killed this year. Fenty replaced Marc Schindler with Robert Hildum, who up until then headed the D.C. attorney general’s public safety division.
“At times, we probably have not reviewed the cases as tightly and professionally and thoroughly as we should have,” Fenty said Friday while meeting with The Examiner’s editorial board. “That is why in making the permanent director move, we’re not going to send someone to the council until we’ve got that perfect blend” of keeping the most dangerous juvenile criminals off the streets and allowing less dangerous offenders back into the community.
Fenty said Hildum was chosen because he believes he has the background and managerial skills to strike that balance.
Under Schindler’s leadership and that of his predecessor Vincent Schiraldi, who left in January to take a job with New York City’s justice system, DYRS focused on community placement, a system in which young offenders are placed in group homes under the care of organizations that teach them life skills. Critics of the program say DYRS was too quick to put sometimes dangerous criminals back on the streets. Proponents of the program say the failure was that of the community groups DYRS relied upon to rehabilitate the youth.
Hildum is in the process of reviewing all 900 juvenile cases to make sure the agency’s wards have been placed according to his new standards, which lean more heavily toward locking kids up. He has 180 days from his July 19 appointment to prove he can strike the mayor’s desired balance.
But if Fenty’s not re-elected, the decision on keeping Hildum likely would be made by Fenty’s top mayoral rival, D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray. As a rule, Gray won’t talk about whom he might keep from Fenty’s administration.
During his meeting with The Examiner, however, Gray also said a balance has to be struck, although his balance tilted more on the side of rehabilitation than on keeping young offenders in jail.
Gray said he feared returning to a “punitive; nonproductive juvenile justice system” that taught kids to be better criminals rather than teaching them skills to succeed as citizens.
