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Sewell Chan

Reporter
The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., USA

Topic: Examine the District of Columbia's efforts to build a stronger, community-based system of care for children with mental illnesses

The deputy administrator at the District's juvenile justice agency resigned yesterday and a temporary chief was appointed in the latest changes at the troubled Youth Services Administration.

Eight-year-old Deion Hawkins can fasten a button, but he needs help with a zipper. He is proficient with the computer, but he cannot ride a bicycle. He knows how to warm food in the microwave, but not how to tie his shoes. He can vacuum the floor, but he can't bathe himself.

Proposal Would Open D.C. Juvenile Cases
The D.C. Council is considering a proposal that would open delinquency proceedings to the general public for the first time and end a policy that has long restricted access, even by victims, to information about juvenile convictions and sentencing.

The D.C. Public Defender Service and American Civil Liberties Union asked a judge yesterday to take over the District's juvenile justice agency, arguing that "17 years of empty promises and repeated findings of contempt" have failed to improve conditions for children under the agency's care.

Seven weeks into his job as the District's top manager, City Administrator Robert C. Bobb paid an unannounced visit to the Oak Hill Youth Center, the 20-acre juvenile detention compound in Laurel. He was not pleased with what he saw

The D.C. Department of Corrections will take over security at the city's juvenile detention facility and assume the task of finding hundreds of children who run away from government custody each year, under changes announced yesterday by Mayor Anthony A. Williams.