D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles’ imprint on the city’s troubled juvenile justice agency is likely to continue well into Vincent Gray’s administration as top officials flee the agency.
Nickles played a key role in putting interim director of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, Robert Hildum, in power when Fenty fired Marc Schindler in July. But even if Gray fires Hildum in favor of someone of his choosing, the ongoing agency brain-drain means the reformers who recreated the agency over the last five years are gone.
Gray has said he supports the residential rehabilitation model the pre-Hildum reformers put in place, but he has also said he wants to ensure through better case management that the young criminals who are a danger to the community aren’t being released from incarceration. That seems to put Gray in proximity to Hildum’s approach, which so far has been to review all 900 DYRS cases with an eye toward locking up more juveniles.
Gray won’t say whether he’ll keep Hildum. Nickles has already said he’s leaving the Wilson Building with Mayor Adrian Fenty.
Meanwhile, Hildum’s decisions and the law enforcement mentality he represents, has already pushed the reformers out. If Gray wants to return the agency’s focus to residential rehabilitation, he’ll have to find a new set of reformers to get it back on track.
