By Colbert I. King
Saturday, October 27, 2007
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.
Data on drug use by parents of youths who died while detained by the agency were not available.
Another indication of family burdens: Nearly 30 percent of all slain youths who had been assigned to the department in 2006 were also documented as neglect or abuse cases in the District's Child and Family Services Agency. That's an increase from 25.9 percent in 2005.
-- Status of cases at time of death: In 2005, 31 percent of the "committed" homicide victims had, at some point, been listed under "abscondence," or away from confinement without permission. Last year, that number skyrocketed to 70 percent.
An equal percentage of "detained" youths in 2006 had, at some point, been documented as having absconded.
-- Juvenile court history: In both years, the common violence-related charges among the 44 included armed carjacking, armed robbery, first-degree murder, possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of ammunition.
It was also common for them to have faced multiple charges and arrests.
In fact, 76.4 percent of last year's victims had multiple charges. That was down from 85.2 percent in 2005.
One homicide victim had nine arrests in 2006.
-- Where did they live? The highest numbers of last year's murdered DYRS-assigned youths lived east of North Capitol Street in Wards 7 and 6, followed by Wards 5, 4 and 1.
In 2005, Wards 7 and 8 shared the highest number of these slain youths, followed by Wards 6, 5, 4 and 1. None of the youths lived in Ward 3 in 2005 or 2006.
-- Where did they die? Last year, Ward 7, with five victims, had the highest number of murdered youths who had been assigned to rehabilitative services. Ward 8 topped the list in 2005 with seven.
In 2006, Ward 6, with four murdered agency-assigned youths, tied Ward 8 for second place. Wards 1, 4 and 5 had one fatality each. Wards 2 and 3 had none in 2006.
What's being done?
A city-funded program has been designed to find and return to custody runaways from the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. The department has also created a program of intensive supervision that pairs mentors from community organizations with youths recently released from secure custody.
Future columns will explore the programs' effectiveness in preventing youths from running away and reducing juvenile rearrests.
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