The Post obtained thousands of confidential juvenile records, court files and other documents and conducted nearly 200 interviews to piece together what happens when the District sends its wards to places of last resort. The newspaper analyzed an index of 18,077 juvenile records and compared them with thousands of pages of monitoring documents, incident reports and other records obtained from city agencies through sources and under the D.C. Freedom of Information Act. The agencies include the city's Youth Services Administration, the Child and Family Services Agency, the Department of Health, the Department of Mental Health, the Child Fatality Review Committee, the D.C. police department, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and the Office of Contracting and Procurement.

The newspaper also relied on records from D.C. Superior Court, U.S. District Court and U.S. Bankruptcy Court; the federal departments of Justice, Commerce, Defense and Health and Human Services; and government agencies in Maryland and Virginia. In two instances, the paper obtained confidentiality waivers from young men imprisoned on adult criminal charges to gain access to their juvenile files and medical records. The Post also obtained confidential government case notes, family court files, social work documents and mental health evaluations from sources. In addition to the documents, the newspaper interviewed social workers, lawyers, judges, facility employees, teenagers and their relatives.

The articles

1. A runaway problem
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/specials/juveniles/juvenile.html#day1

2. A troubled company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/specials/juveniles/juvenile.html#day2

3. One hospital's story —Poor care & abuses alleged at Riverside Profit Was Paramount, Former Workers Say
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56180-2003Jul14.html

Last month a Post investigative report uncovered a litany of abuses by guardians and judges in the District's probate court. Now a new series by The Post's Scott Higham and Sewell Chan has revealed another pattern of neglect and corruption in the treatment of people who are the District's wards — this time juveniles in city-run treatment programs, many of which are run by contractors.

"When you're gone, you're gone," Kenneth Taylor, now 21, told The Post's reporters. In 2001 he ran away from a group home — via the front door — and soon afterward raped four women at gunpoint. He is now serving a 35-year prison sentence. The District had spent about $450,000 in treatment for him at private facilities alone. Mr. Taylor is just one of hundreds of juveniles who simply walked away from the city's custody. Between 1999 and 2002, at least nine people were killed by youths who were supposed to be under the city's supervision. And 17 of the juvenile wards have themselves been slain since 1998.

There is blame enough to go around for this human tragedy, and many of the parties involved are all too eager to point fingers elsewhere. Judges blame police officers who don't crack down on kids with outstanding custody orders but manage to make arrests after the youths have committed serious crimes. Parents blame a system that doesn't adequately supervise the children in its care. District officials say they're doing their best with the shoddy programs they've inherited. "There's a learning curve," said Gayle L. Turner, head of the Youth Services Administration since 1998. But half a decade should be ample time to make serious improvements in the vital agencies dealing with the young people who are the city's future.

In the meantime, D.C. taxpayers continue to fund a safety net that operates more like a black hole. The city doled out $3.1 million to just one of the programs, Re-Direct Inc., which was ultimately shuttered in disgrace. Wrongful-death and negligence lawsuits for youngsters who died in the for-profit company's care could soon cost much more in damages. Time and again the city is showing itself unable to help its most vulnerable residents. Even as officials promise reforms, far too many city employees and the contractors they are supposed to monitor have victimized the ones most in need of their help. It is clear that what is needed is a major overhaul of another broken system.

Thursday, 17 July 2003