We Feel You Colby
On Saturday, Colby King wrote another column addressing youth violence and the problems with DYRS. In his column, he spoke for journalists all over—but especially here in the District—about all those columns getting zero respect from the people that could actually fix the juvenile justice system. In other words, he's spilled a lot of ink on a pretty worthy crusade and no one in power seemed to care.
This does not bode well for the rest of us (citizen bloggers, alt-weekly vets, Legal Times interns). King is a big-time powerhouse journalist. His columns are must-reads every Saturday. And he has people who agree with him on this issue (those people all seem to work at D.C. Superior Court).
King laments:
"After writing about problems in DYRS for more than a year, I believe it is clear that city officials remain satisfied with the agency's stewardship and direction; otherwise, they would have made changes.
A D.C. Council member told me that my columns about DYRS simply contain 'anecdotes,' the same dismissive label that DYRS Director Vincent Schiraldi reportedly applied to my columns in a public forum last year.
So there it is.
Lo, a steady stream of juvenile justice columns over these many months signifies nothing.
I must, therefore, apologize to you, dear readers, for wasting your time..."
11:50 am
Doesn't Colby's column strike you, Jason, as more than a little self-absorbed and whiny? Don't you get at least a hint of 'Waah! I'm a Pulitzer Prize winner! What I say matters! Lee Satterfield's been telling me for months that Vinny Schiraldi's an idiot! Why won't anyone listen to me?!?!"
11:57 am
Well one someone tells you that all your investigative work and all your columns are just "anecdotes," you'd be pissed off. And while I applaud Vinny's instincts and intentions, the results of Colby's investigative digging tell me that there are problems with DYRS.
And those problems aren't just anecdotes.
12:18 pm
Well, one way to rebut the "anecdotes" charge is to produce some hard data showing that DYRS under Schiraldi is performing worse than the agency did pre-Schiraldi--you know, x number of violent crimes were committed by youths who had been in DYRS custody. He didn't do that. He just whined.
12:40 pm
Sadly, it will take more than a WAPO editorial and/or hard data to see DC legislators and Fenty make any moves on improving the current crisis-state of DYRS.
Only when a teen that was "supposed" to be in DYRS custody jumps/robs/stabs/kills the son or daughter of a wealthy diplomat or one of Fenty's developer ATM friends will the public see recognition by DC political leaders that there is a problem with DYRS (and of course Fenty will give the public a press conference on the matter:)
12:43 pm
We live in the Last Plantation - that's all Colby should say. It doesn't matter how many Pulitzer or Nobel prizes a person has, nobody in DC government cares what you think. & no one cares in DC government because the citizens here are so down-beaten that they accept poor government services & widespread corruption in the DC government.
For instance - the DC government is closing child care centers [that have been proved to be effective] but building dog parks; meanwhile, the mayor & city council use their luxury boxes at the Verizon Center & the Nationals baseball stadium.
In New York City, citizen outrage forced Mayor Bloomberg to relinquish the city's luxury box at the new Mets stadium. That will never happen here in DC - home of the beaten down.
Luxury boxes for the mayor & city council or child care centers? In DC, it's luxury boxes for the mayor & city council - & hardly anyone cares.
Colby's 108 years old, & has put up with this for his whole life. When we're 108 years old, we'll probably be tired of it, too.
1:41 pm
DeBonis, I'm more than a bit saddened by what I would consider your support for DYRS....the department is performing no better now than it was under the previous administration and no one seems to care.
Ask some of the lawyers and judges who deal with youth offenders what they think of DYRS and you'll see that it's a completely broken system that does nothing to help the youth of this city, nor does it do anything to protect the residents of this city.
Prosecutors and judges have two options for youth offenders, probation or committ them to DYRS, however once they are committed to DYRS, its up to DYRS to determine everything else going forward about that youth. The judges and prosecutors may make recommendations, but that's it.
And sorry, it's only an ancedote, but two innocent young people were recently killed by an 18 year-old who was released from DYRS...why was he there? He had killed someone when he was 16. But DYRS thought he'd done is his time. Lovely.
2:01 pm
Hey clearly, DYRS has serious problems. The circumstances of Lafonte Lurie Carlton's release in particular, which you refer to, are shocking and demand accountability.
You write that "the department is performing no better now than it was under the previous administration and no one seems to care." That may be so, but Colby has not made that case.
I merely caution against sugarcoating the state of the agency pre-Vinny. The "anecdotes" obscure areas of real progress, particularly regarding Oak Hill.
10:19 am
Part of the reason elected officials aren't taking Colby King's articles seriously has to do with how he's approached writing his articles. He obviously has a personal axe to grind with Schiraldi, and hasn't offered a serious, even-handed critique of Vinny's attempted reforms--many of which have yielded positive results. Mr. King never offers up alternative ways that DYRS ought to conduct business, and my hunch is that he has no creative solutions to offer.
Mr. King conveniently chooses not to discuss how hyper-dysfunctional DYRS was when Vinny took over. If you look at the actual stats, things have improved at DYRS, albeit slower than everyone would like and with unfortunate tragic failures.