The head of the District’s troubled juvenile justice agency has resigned, becoming the third chief of the agency to leave the office this year.
Robert Hildum will be leaving his position as interim director of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services at the end of the week, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles confirmed to The Washington Examiner. He will be returning to his old job in Nickles’ office as the head of the attorney general’s public safety unit.
Hildum was appointed to the position in July, after Mayor Adrian Fenty fired interim director Marc Schindler amidst a rash of high profile murders allegedly committed by DYRS wards. Schindler had taken over the agency in January from Vinny Schiraldi, who left to take a job in New York City.
Nickles said Hildum is leaving because he “didn’t get an emphatic endorsement from the incoming [Vince Gray] administrations.”
Hildum has been under fire in recent weeks for his policy of putting more juvenile delinquents behind bars, which has pushed the population of the city’s youth prison far above capacity. Law enforcement sources tell The Examiner that at one point Hildum even suggested housing the young criminals in the adult jail.
