A weekend story from the Washington Post tackles Mayor-elect Vincent Gray’s approach to DYRS and the recent attention on youths in the program who were victims or perpetrators of homicide this year.
As mayor, Gray (D) will inherit responsibility for all the problems of an agency that, improved as it is from five years ago, still struggles to supervise and rehabilitate the city’s youngest offenders. After the events of the past year, the city is again debating its obligation to help and its inclination to punish.
“It’s a balance; it’s got to be a balance,” Gray said in a brief interview last week. “I think the trick is finding what the right balance is.”
Later in the report, Gray hinted at how he would achieve that balance.
“As a framework, I want to continue (the rehabilitative approach). But we’ve got to look at the public safety issues. I want to see the data, to see those who committed these crimes.”
