A good summary of the program charged with rehabilitating the District’s delinquent and violent youth is in Colbert King’s Washington Post column this week.
King explains the DYRS system and citing Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, states that
●16 young people killed in the District this year have been at one time under DYRS supervision or supervised by court social services;
●Nine people who are DYRS wards or have recently left DYRS because they reached age 21 have been charged with first-degree murder;
●Of the approximately 225 DYRS youths (ages 18 to 20) placed in the community between April and September, 127 were rearrested.
His conclusion?
After writing more than 30 columns in recent years about DYRS and its failures, I don’t know what is left to say. Youth in the care and custody of the District of Columbia continue to maim and get maimed, rob and get robbed, kill and be killed.
Read the full column here.
