Isolation cases of jailed District youth skyrocket

There was a 75 percent jump in the number of cases in which youths were placed in isolation each month at the District’s two juvenile detention centers after Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed a former prosecutor to head the city’s juvenile justice agency.

In the first six months of 2010, there was an average of four isolation cases per month at New Beginnings and the Youth Services Center, Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services officials confirmed. But in July, when Fenty fired the previous interim director of DYRS and appointed Robert Hildum as the new interim director, the instances of isolation skyrocketed to 20. It climbed again in August, when inmates were sent to their cells for isolated stays of up to 20 hours on 25 occasions.