Number of Youths Awaiting Trial in D.C. Jail Triples

By Robert E. Pierre
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Dozens of juveniles are being held in the D.C. jail awaiting trial as adults, triple the population of a year ago, according to a study to be released this morning.

In May, for example, the average daily count of juveniles in the jail was 42, compared with 14 a year earlier. Since October, that count has been two to three times higher than a year earlier, according to the report.

The reasons for the sudden rise are unclear. The study by the Campaign for Youth Justice, a group opposed to putting minors through the adult criminal justice system, said the rise is due partly to prosecutors applying a "blanket policy," trying as adults all juveniles accused of certain violent crimes, including murder, armed robbery and some assaults.

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, however, said the rise is a byproduct of an increase in violent crimes, including by minors.

"A lot of these crimes involved 16- and 17-year-olds committing armed violent offenses, often with guns," he said. "If there's one thing we have no tolerance for in this office, that's it. We're exercising our discretion responsibly and reasonably."

Although most of the juveniles in jail are 16 or 17, at least one was 15. The average stay was 100 days.

City leaders and youth advocates have expressed concern about the corrosive effect on young people who spend months and sometimes years in the D.C. jail, surrounded by adult criminals and with few services such as education. Only nine of the 42 minors jailed in May were attending school, according to the report.

"I fear we're just creating a more dangerous criminal by holding them with adults," said D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6). "That would be counterproductive."

The Department of Corrections is negotiating with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to place youths charged as adults in city-owned facilities with oth er juveniles convicted on lesser charges. Convicted felons in the District, including those younger than 18 convicted as adults, are sent to federal institutions across the country.

D.C. Corrections Department Director Devon Brown said a change is overdue. The report said some juveniles in the D.C. jail are locked in their cells for all but half an hour a day, with little to do but sleep. Brown said all inmates -- adults and juveniles alike -- are out of their cells for at least one hour a day, as required. But he said the 30-year-old facility is not equipped to provide the programming that youths need.

"They have been charged as adults, but they're still juveniles," Brown said. "They're very volatile. Their behavior is erratic. They need structure."

That's what Keela Hailes wants for her 16-year-old son, Jermaine Hailes, who had been in the jail since January. He was charged with armed robbery, using a fake gun.

Minors are housed in a separate wing, but Keela Hailes said the situation was deplorable.

"Basically, there was nothing there for them to do," she said. "They would get into fights. There should be education or something, rather than just warehousing them."

On Friday, Hailes said, her son was transferred to a facility in Wisconsin, where he is to serve out an 18-month sentence. Jermaine is the eldest of her six children, and she said she is hoping that he uses the time to reflect and better himself. He plans to resume taking high school courses there, she said, and to return to the District to graduate.

"I didn't want him to get a slap on the wrist," Hailes said. "I wanted him to do his time in a constructive rehabilitative place. I want him to know the consequences of his actions."

But there is much debate about how best to make that happen.

Last summer, the D.C. Council instituted a crime emergency and imposed an earlier youth curfew. Advocacy groups said the action was little more than a political stunt that had little or no impact on crime.

In 2005, 6 percent of the 51,500 arrests in the city were of juveniles. Last year, 8 percent were of juveniles.

Liz Ryan of the Campaign for Youth Justice said the detention of minors in the D.C. jail is part of a larger problem.

"We're locking up kids in detention that don't need to be there," she said. "We have kids who would be better served in an alternative-to-detention system."

That's why the group is asking city leaders to change the way things work. In a letter to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and the council, the group made several suggestions. Among them are not housing youths and adults together and placing juveniles in prisons closer to home.