A Sad Toll Within Juvenile Justice's Realm

What's known about those D.C. youths who are shot and killed, mourned, and then dropped from the news?

My past three columns have looked at the disposition of juvenile cases by the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) and raised questions about the department's concern for public safety.

Today's column takes a closer look at 44 youths who were involved with the department when they died in 2005 or 2006. (The juvenile justice system differentiates between youths "committed" to agency custody after their cases have been decided by a judge and youths "detained" by the agency before trial as the result of a judge's order. Both categories can be considered as assigned to DYRS.) These youths were tied together by more than their connection to the department. All died by acts of violence and had certain common characteristics.

The following data on the 44 are drawn from confidential Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services annual fatality reports prepared by the D.C. Child Fatality Review Committee covering calendar years 2005 and 2006.

-- Manner and causes of death: In 2005 and 2006, 88 percent of the youths were shot to death, including one suicide with a gun in 2005.

-- Age and educational levels: The oldest homicide victims were 21. The youngest was 16.

None of the 44 had completed high school. Only two are believed to have received GEDs, but that has not been verified.

Most required special education services -- a notable trend among murdered D.C. youths.

-- Race and sex: All were African American -- a significant and consistent trend in the nation's capital. Ninety-six percent were male. Each year had one female homicide victim who was involved with the juvenile justice system.

-- Substance abuse: There was an extremely high use of illicit drugs. Almost 78 percent of the 2005 victims had, at some point, used illicit drugs. In 2006, 100 percent had used illicit drugs.

One youth in 2005 had been treated for acute alcohol poisoning and liver damage caused by severe alcoholism.

(Each time I write about youths and their problems, a few readers fire off angry e-mails demanding that parents be excoriated for not properly raising their children. The following statistic may help explain what some troubled youths are up against.) Forty percent of the parents of deceased youths who were committed to the agency had documented histories of using illicit drugs; the drug histories of 30 percent of parents couldn't be determined. That doesn't mean they were clean, only that their histories couldn't be documented.