Vinny Schiraldi to Head NYC Probation
Vincent Schiraldi, the controversial head of the District's Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, will head the New York City probation department. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Schiraldi's appointment at a city hall press conference this morning.
The move brings to an end Schiraldi's long and contentious tenure here in the District. An outspoken advocate of rehabilitating troubled youth rather than warehousing them in prisonlike homes, Schiraldi oversaw the closing of the notorious Oak Hill reformatory and the opening of its replacement, the New Beginnings Youth Center. The new facility—brighter, cheerier, and much more lightly defended than its predecessor—came under criticism after a youth escaped the day after its opening.
Schiraldi has also come under regular fire from public safety advocates, including prosecutors and judges, for placing violent youths back into community settings, sometimes with little supervision. His tenure had provided regular column fodder for Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King. But he maintained his defenders, including much of the political establishment, making him one of the very few holdovers from Mayor Anthony A. Williams' administration to gain the confidence of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.
Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, who has overseen DYRS for three years as chair of the council's human services committee, says Schiraldi "made substantial progress" in reforming a system that's been subject to federal litigation for more than a decade. "I think that running a juvenile justice system with how we view juveniles, with our fears and concerns about teenagers, it's an extremely difficult job–particularly in D.C. with its history," he says.
Wells says Schiraldi will be remembered "as a reformer."
"Aggressive reformers don't last as long as he did," Wells says. "For being as controversial as he was, he certainly had longevity to make it through two mayors....He certainly made a national name for himself, and reformers don't stay that long."
Schiraldi told the New York Observer's Azi Paybarah that "he wanted to focus on juveniles in the criminal justice system."
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
1:48 pm
Our juvenile justice system will still be a mess after Mr. Schiraldi departs, but I say good riddance!
2:29 pm
Congratulations Vinny. Good luck.
3:52 pm
Now rename the agency to what it should be, Juvenile Detention. Reprogram it to reflect punishment for committing a crime.
4:48 pm
Somewhere, Colby King is rejoicing.
5:14 pm
Part of the problem is the anonymity we grant these losers. Take one of the crap buildings in SE or NE, put bullet-proof glass in for exterior walls, and post electronic signs visible from the outside just listing the stupid crime the miscreant has pulled. No names, just basic facts of why they're in there.
What a great show it would be.
8:17 pm
Vinny Schiraldi tried his best in DC. His job was a thankless one, and he did it well. His talent, humanity and courage will be missed.
12:47 am
There's currently a Senate Task Force regarding unsafe conditions at OCFS - DJJ facilities. OCFS-DJJ has beern accused of inadequate MH oversight and improperly prescribing youths ove 6 psychotropic medications at one time.
Now you are going to bring in a person with a history of overprescribing meds to youths and mess up NYC DJJ too?
Great, now NYC kids can get over prescribed psychotropics just like DC kids.
An Rx for Abuse Among Young D.C. Offenders
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/17/AR2009071702610.html
By Colbert I. King
On the streets it's called Susie Q, Squirrel or Quell -- a new drug of choice for those on the streets or behind bars. They say it helps them fall asleep. Inmates fake a mental illness to get it. They'll steal it if they can; trade for it, too.
The correct name is Seroquel. A sleep aid it isn't.
Seroquel is a powerful anti-psychotic drug prescribed for people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Because of its potential for abuse, clinicians at many drug treatment programs and prisons have begun to curb Seroquel prescriptions.
This account comes courtesy of a July 13 Boston Globe story by Patricia Wen, "Psychiatric Drug Sought on Streets." The rest of today's column about Seroquel comes courtesy of the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
I first heard about Seroquel's use in April when a worried DYRS employee told me that the drug had been stolen from a nurse's cart at the (now-defunct) Oak Hill Youth Center in Laurel for D.C. delinquents.
Seroquel, the source said, was being prescribed as a sleep aid, and young inmates have been stealing and selling it for snacks or trading it for favors.
In response to my inquiry about the theft, DYRS information officer Reginald Sanders wrote in an April 29 e-mail (department officials won't answer my questions in person or by phone): "The staff member in question has been disciplined; the unit was searched for any contraband and the missing medication was found. The drug . . . was Seroquel."
Wrote Sanders, "As a general matter we do not prescribe sleep medications."
End of story? Not when that city agency is involved.
In separate interviews over the past several days, three DYRS sources, who sought anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs, said it was common knowledge that all a youth has to say is "I can't sleep " and ask for Seroquel, and the psychiatrist writes the prescription. Because of recent complaints, the psychiatrist now writes Seroquel prescriptions only for "mood disorders." Told that youth are selling Seroquel, the same psychiatrist is reported to have said that "everyone is entitled to be an entrepreneur."
The psychiatrist is on contract to DYRS. His record is not unblemished.
New York State Health Department official Claire T. Pospisil confirmed this week that the doctor's "license limitation is permanent, and therefore in effect." She was referring to a limitation New York placed on his license prohibiting him "from engaging in the independent, unsupervised practice of medicine" and restricting his practice "to employment in an institution."
It was done for a reason.
About 10 years ago, the doctor's license was suspended for six months, and he was placed on probation for five years by medical boards in New York, Maryland, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, based on 1999 Maryland board findings "of immoral or unprofessional conduct . . . in that he engaged in inappropriate social, physical, and sexual contact with a 21 year old female patient/student. He thereafter, attempted suicide by the ingestion of a controlled dangerous drug and alcohol."
He underwent therapy (according to records of board proceedings), obtained a divorce and married the student/patient.
His probation has been completed and his license is now unrestricted, except in New York, where he remains "permanently" barred from engaging in the independent, unsupervised practice of medicine.
Several attempts to reach him by phone at his home, on his cellphone, at DYRS and at another institution where he works were unsuccessful. Messages left at his home and on his cellphone advised him that I wanted to discuss prescriptions and his license. What now?
Short of intervention by the D.C. inspector general or by the federal Government Accountability Office, which is empowered to subpoena records and obtain sworn testimony regarding overprescribed antipsychotics for off-label uses, don't expect much -- except possibly the expenditure of energy by DYRS to track down and punish my sources.
Oh, yes, if there's enough heat, some low-level staffers could be hung out to dry. Fast-talking DYRS Director Vincent Schiraldi is a master at shifting the blame for anything that goes wrong to subordinates. And he's a star among social services elites who believe the world can be made lovable for dispossessed people of color as long as the elites are calling the shots.
He's protected, too.
The D.C. Council's 2005 Human Services Committee report on Schiraldi's confirmation as DYRS director tells the story.
Who steered his nomination through the council? Then-committee chairman -- now mayor -- Adrian Fenty.
Who testified in Schiraldi's behalf? Peter Nickles, then-lead counsel in the Jerry M. lawsuit (the decades-long case against the District over conditions at Oak Hill) and now D.C. attorney general, and Tommy Wells, then-executive director of the Consortium for Child Welfare and now Ward 6 council member and chairman of the council's DYRS oversight committee.
Why should DYRS worry? Susie Q? Seroquel? Let the good times roll.
10:01 pm
I need to learn more about this. :(