The roughly $20 million the District spends annually on sending delinquent youths to detention centers run by other jurisdictions is being scrutinized by a D.C. Council member after four city wards escaped a South Carolina facility. Three of the four teens who escaped late Wednesday were back behind bars by noon Thursday. Delonte Parker, a 19-year-old who sources said was convicted of murder, was yet to be caught as of Thursday evening. The four escapees were among nine wards of the city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services being held at the Palmetto Summerville Behavioral Health Center in Summerville, S.C.
The escape in South Carolina “underscores the need for us to review and analyze our use of residential treatment centers outside the District of Columbia,” said Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, whose committee oversees DYRS. Graham said his committee is gathering data on the program.
