By Colbert I. King
Saturday, November 17, 2007
"My own view is that it is very unfortunate, but people steal."
-- D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), Nov. 9
And there it is: The quintessential response of the city's politically entrenched to scandal in the D.C. government. Instead of an assumed pride in the commitment and dedication of public servants, there's hopelessness, an absence of outrage, a ready acceptance of the worst.
Thirty million dollars in tax receipts out the window and into someone's pocket? Tsk, tsk. "People steal."
Which helps explain the blind eye that is turned to a steady stream of criminality in the D.C. government. How about:
-- The former D.C. corrections officer who pleaded guilty Nov. 13 to conspiring to accept money in return for the delivery of contraband to D.C. jail inmates.
-- The guilty plea on the same date by a former budget analyst in the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency on charges of filing false claims, first-degree fraud and theft (by stealing checks sent to the agency and depositing them in her personal account).
-- The former D.C. Department of Corrections guard sentenced Sept. 12 for accepting bribes while working at a corrections facility.
-- The two brothers, one of whom worked in the D.C. Health Department's mail room, who pleaded guilty Aug. 21 to conspiracy to steal and deposit D.C. government checks into a personal account.
-- The D.C. school official responsible for charter school oversight who pleaded guilty Aug. 9 to a scheme to defraud D.C. public schools.
-- The former worker in the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs sentenced on June 14 for offering a bribe to a department building inspector.
-- The former D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services corrections officer sentenced on Jan. 9 for fraudulently obtaining money through a time-and-attendance scheme.
Despite these convictions, announced in news releases from the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, no city official makes a big deal about the incidents.
"People steal."
But let a scheme as large in scope and as audacious as the property tax refund scam get emblazoned across the front pages and city leaders get all hot and bothered, as if they really care about rot in the government's foundation.
Their record tells another story.
Their inattention and indifference are not limited to the city's finances.
There's the matter of deceased District residents Cortez Durrell Lilly, 17, and Deanthony M. Henson, 20.
At their deaths, both were under the jurisdiction of the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
Lilly was killed in July when a stolen motorcycle on which he was riding collided with a pickup truck. The driver fled the scene but was caught and charged in the accident.
Henson was found fatally shot last Friday, the city's 166th homicide victim this year.
Lilly had been in the juvenile justice system since age 14. Last February he was committed to the care and custody of Youth Rehabilitation Services until age 21.
Much good that did.
Henson was also committed to the jurisdiction of Youth Rehabilitation Services until age 21. He, too, though, was back on the streets and is dead.
A little-known fact: Being placed under the jurisdiction of Youth Rehabilitation Services is not synonymous with being detained. The department, led by highly touted juvenile justice reformer Vincent Schiraldi, has the discretion to place back in the community at any time youths who have been committed to its jurisdiction by the court. Schiraldi's decisions are not reviewable by the court.
Schiraldi believes that most juveniles can and should be supervised in community settings, and he acts accordingly, sometimes ignoring staff recommendations when they indicate that a youth offender should be placed and helped in a more restrictive setting.
Cases such as those of Lilly and Henson, and others cited in earlier columns, leave the police frustrated, violence-plagued communities in fear and juvenile justice circles in turmoil.
A city that is concerned about both troubled youth and public safety would address this problem. It would initiate an independent, third-party probe -- not controlled by the youth services agency -- that documents and tracks, since 2005 when Schiraldi took up the post, the records of all youths placed under the jurisdiction of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
Such an investigation would review judicial records and decisions, the youth agency's professional staff recommendations, the agency's final placement decisions, and the youths' subsequent drug, social and criminal histories.
Ordinarily, the D.C. Council should take on that task, eliciting the views of all sides in this critical issue, the youth agency's leadership, probation officers, judges and other court personnel, and community and youth leaders.
The council committee that oversees Youth Rehabilitation Services is chaired by Phil Mendelson.
"People steal."
People also die.
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