Good morning.

I am Ward Five Councilmember Zachary Parker, Chair of the Council's Committee on Youth Affairs.

Today is May 7th, 2026.

We are meeting in room 123 of the John A.

Wilson Building and virtually via Zoom.

The time is now 9 46 a.m.

And I am calling to order this budget hearing for fiscal year 2027 for the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

I want to thank my colleagues that joined us last week for our public roundtable focused on providing alternatives to young people so that they are not gathering in these team takeovers.

And this today's oversight hearing is an extension of that work, thinking about how do we promote the well-being of young people in the care of DRS.

If you are joining us to testify online, please make sure you to accept the upgrade to panelists' offer when committee staff send it to you.

We will begin with public witnesses and then transition to our government witness.

Public witnesses will have five minutes if they are representing an organization and three minutes if they are speaking for themselves.

Government witnesses, I will have 10 minutes to speak with multiple rounds expected.

Today I am pleased to hear testimony from members of the community, advocates, and our agency partners about the mayor's budget for fiscal year 2027.

I'm particularly interested in hearing from DRS about what it believes it needs to be successful over the next year.

I'm pleased to see the following.

This budget includes very significant increases to the capital budget for more bids at the youth services center and new beginnings.

But questions remain as to what investments there will be for more than just housing units.

An essential part of this is ensuring that DRS can provide comprehensive reentry services so that our youth have the tools they need to exit DRS and transition safely back into the community.

As we turn to the budget, I'm particularly interested in making sure that D R S is providing youth with career coaching and job application guidance as part of that pre-reentry process.

The Road Act is the district's primary legislative tool to battle juvenile recidivism.

It requires that every child at DRS have a specially tailored plan for rehabilitation and for their transition back to their homes.

During this hearing, I hope to learn more about the agency's work to come into compliance with that landmark legislation.

And I will just note also that I know there's, as I mentioned at the outset, great public interest in how do we prevent more of our young people ending up in the care of DRS.

And so I will continue to think about how do we prevent more young people entering that pipeline and what investments generally we should be making even outside of the agency.

And so with that, I'm going to start and turn to our public witnesses for the day.

First, we have Eduardo Freer from the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Initiative.

Anya Kreider with Disability Rights DC, Magnalina Chungis, with the Council for Court Excellence.

Dominique Moore with Life Rain.

I am not seeing Dominique Moore, so we will go to Penelope, Spain with open city etiquette.

I feel like you've spent a lot of time at the Wilson Building lately.

With that, you may begin.

Thank you.

Good morning, Chairperson Parker.

My name is Eduardo Ferrer, I'm award five resident, an associate professor at the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic and Policy Director at the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Initiative.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the proposed budget for DYRS for fiscal year 27.

Specifically, I asked this committee to eliminate the capital funds allocated over the next four years to expanding the number of jail and prison beds for children in the district, and to restore the cuts to operating funds for case management, economic opportunities development, youth engagement, and community outreach.

As the chairperson well knows, DYRS's proposed capital budget for FY27 includes $29 million over four years to expand the number of housing units at the Youth Services Center by 10%, and the number of housing units at New Beginnings by 50%.

Moreover, DYRS's proposed operating budget seeks to increase DYRS's residential and secure facilities budget by a combined 14 million dollars, while cutting its community-based services budget by over $4 million, a nearly 50% decrease, and also decreasing the investments in case management, educational and vocational opportunities, and violence prevention services.

Now, first, expanding the number of beds at YSC and New Beginnings over the next four years and allocating significantly more money to residential and secure facility lines in the next year is unnecessary.

While YSC has been near or uh at capacity since about January 2024, it was well under capacity for the six years prior to 2024 and has been mostly below or at capacity for the past few months, including being 10% under capacity as of yesterday morning.

Moreover, the overcrowding and associated ills observed at YSC in 2024 and 2025 were in large part a function of DYRS's dysfunction.

Specifically DYRS's failure to meaningfully and timely address the awaiting placement population held at YSC and its staffing issues.

Indeed, for much of 2024 and 2025, the awaiting placement population hovered between 20 and 30 young people and reached a high as high as 41 youth.

Even as of yesterday, when YSE was under capacity, 19 youth, which represented over 20% of the youth at YSC, were youth who are awaiting placement.

As a result, recent and historical data combined with the central role that the awaiting placement population played in overcrowding demonstrates that it's not necessary to build additional jail and prison beds for our children or significantly increase the residential and secure facilities budget next year.

Instead, we need to actually address the awaiting placement population and staffing issues.

Second, adding 40 new hardware secure housing units for youth will cost the district significantly more than the 29 million dollars in capital expenditures because it will structurally change DYRS's operating budget moving forward.

More housing units are just are not just a one-time fixed cost.

Once more housing units are built, DYRS will need more youth development representatives, medical staff, food, clothes, electricity, water, cleaning staff, et cetera, to be able to run those units.

Moreover, this increase in operating costs would come at a time when the cost of secure placement per day at DYRS has already ballooned over 50% between FY22 and FY25, increasing from $130,000 per day in FY22 to nearly $200,000 per day in FY25, or nearly $73 million per year, which as the council member knows is about the same as DPR's entire budget.

As a result, given the proposal calls for building 10% more housing units at YSC and 50% more housing units at New Beginnings, we can expect the associated operating costs to be substantial.

Given this administration is in its final months and the tightness of the FY27 budget, now is not the time to commit to the significant sunk cost and set DYRS's budget on a new trajectory that represent that out that represents the outgoing mayor's philosophy and priorities.

Third, by spending heavily on detention and incarceration, while cutting direct investment in youth families and communities, DYRS proposed FY27 operating and capital budgets moves the district further away from what works.

Detaining and incarcerating children does not promote rehabilitation or reduce recidivism.

To the contrary, detaining children makes it more likely that a young person will recidivate, drop out of school, struggle to find gainful employment, makes it more likely that they'll end up in the adult system, and that they'll suffer lifelong collateral consequences, including poor physical health and adulthood, worsening of existing physical and mental health problems, and a shorter life expectancy.

This is not the path we should be committing to in this moment, especially when we know that DYRS does not provide rehabilitative services at YSC by design and is struggling mightily to provide meaningful rehabilitative services and new beginnings.

In sum, this budget seeks to bind future mayoral administrations to the same reactive, ineffective, and harmful carceral approach to developing our young people and promoting safe communities that has undergirded the current administration's philosophy and failures.

Now is the time to turn the page, not ingrain this approach into our budgets for year to come.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and I'm available to answer questions.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, uh, good morning, Chairmember Parker and members of this committee.

My name is Anya Kreider, and I'm an attorney at Disability Rights DC.

In my personal capacity, I'm a proud Ward 5 resident.

Disability Rights DC is the federally designated protection and advocacy program for people with disabilities in the District of Columbia.

Per disability rights DC's federal mandate, disability rights DC staff serves the district residents with disabilities through individual representation, investigations of abuse and neglect, training and systemic advocacy.

Disability rights DC has serious concerns about the current allotment of funds to DYRS regarding additional bed space in institutional settings.

We continue to be concerned about room confinement as youth continue to report split floor time, and no data is currently maintained on room confinement across the agency.

As we have previously testified, disability rights DC believes that at a very minimum it is DYRS's responsibility to develop practices that align with and are responsive to DC law regarding room confinement and data keeping.

Additionally, youth are entitled to at least one hour of large muscle activity per day.

At YSC, this takes place either in the courtyard, also called the MAIS, or in the gym.

As recently as this month, youth across units at YSC continue to report that they are not consistently getting one hour of large muscle activity each day.

Basic operational obligations, such as providing opportunities for large muscle activity, limiting room confinement, and maintaining data cannot be expected to improve with the expansion of bed capacity.

In short, the inability of DYRS to protect the basic rights of youth in their custody counsels against expanding DYRS institutional capacity.

Foundational to these concerns is appropriate staffing.

How does DYRS plan to staff the additional institutional capacity proposed?

For context, disability rights DC has seen incredible compassion and care from some YDRs, wiping tears, offering encouragement, and planning elaborate activities and programming.

However, when looking at the current DC Department of Human Resources page, the YDR position includes but is not limited to the following tasks.

Conducting security checks of staff, visitors, and youth, including searches or weapons and contraband.

Managing crisis situations, engaging youth in positive activities, participating in individual and group counseling sessions with youth and their families.

In effect, DYRS is asking YDRs to be corrections officers, activity coordinators, and therapists.

The resulting concern is that when each of these roles is not fulfilled with a basic level of competency and reinforced by robust training, the well-being and safety of youth and staff is compromised.

Ultimately, the fundamental obligations of DYRS are not met as restraint protocols are not followed, programming is insufficient, and therapeutic interactions are sacrificed.

Again, an already compromised staffing pool counsels against expanding DYRS institutional capacity.

Lastly, disability rights DC has deep concerns about reinvestment in the Oak Hill facility, given its not so distant history and adamantly opposes the inherently carceral space ever be reused for youth.

Given this context, disability rights DC particularly appreciated Councilmember Parker's line of questioning at the recent Department of Behavioral Health budget hearing on April 24th.

Disability Rights DC adamantly agrees that an effective non-police mental and behavioral health crisis response for youth is critical to investment in DC youth.

Given the elimination of champs without appropriate reinvestment within CRT, alongside decreased staffing for school behavioral health, and a hotly contested school behavioral health plan, the mayor's budget appears to demonstrate a commitment to locking up DC's children over supporting them in the communities in which they deserve to thrive.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony.

We welcome any opportunity to discuss.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, we will have Magnalina Chungis.

Thank you, Chairperson Parker and members of the committee for the opportunity to present testimony.

My name is Magdalena Chungis.

I'm the policy manager at Council for Court Excellence, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which conducts research, educates, and advocates to make DC's unique legal systems more just, equitable, and accountable to the community.

And we are also a member of the Thrive Under 25 coalition.

My testimony today concerns the proposed budget for the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services with a focus on fulfilling funding at the independent oversight portion of the recidivism reduction at DYRS Amendment Act, previously the Road Act, and our concerns about proposed funding for an expanded number of beds at both New Beginnings and the Youth Services Center.

We remain steadfast in the belief that DYRS must have independent oversight to ensure accountability and better protect incarcerated youth.

This permanent oversight was codified in the recidivism reduction act but remains unfunded, resulting in the elimination of the Office of Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities oversight, with no agency taking up its role as an independent watchdog.

The OIJJFO provided valuable oversight since 2021, including maintaining publicly available data dashboards on population data on DYRS facilities and reports, such as their recent report detailing serious concerns with the fire safety systems and mental health care at the juvenile justice facilities.

Independent oversight allows for unbiased independent investigation into incidents, such as alleged staff on youth physical and sexual violence, and there are ongoing lawsuits against DYRS that point to possible harms to our youth and exposure on the part of the DC government to expensive settlements.

As passed, the recidivism reduction act provides for permanent oversight of DYRS under the office of the DC auditor.

However, since the law's passage in 2025, this provision has yet to be funded.

The estimated funding at bill passage was 5.8 million over four years.

This funding would allow for the hiring of four employees to inspect juvenile justice facilities and complete compliance reviews, which is an expansion of the previous OIJJFO office.

We understand the added complication of where to locate this oversight body remains given that ODCAA was not inclined to house this independent oversight permanently, and we asked this committee to continue having conversations about where to house this oversight, including exploring the possibility of expanding the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children to include not just oversight of the Child and Family Services Agency, but also DYRS.

Moving on to the capital budget, of great concern to us is the mayor's proposed capital budget for DYRS, which includes an additional 46 million over the next four years to construct 10 additional beds at YSC and 30 at New Beginnings.

The mayor's justification for expanded beds is unclear, but we do recognize YSC has dealt with overcrowding over the past few years, with the issue of committed youth awaiting relevant and appropriate placements, spending long periods of time, often months at YSC before being placed, being one that we explored in our October 2025 report, committed youth awaiting placement in the DC Youth Services Center.

The focus of this committee, however, and the agency should remain on decreasing wait times for committed youth at YSC, and expanding the number of beds at YSC is not a solution to the underlying problem of overcrowding, and instead could potentially create a lack of urgency in shortening wait times.

When fully enacted, the recidivism reduction act includes a provision that should help to address one cause of these delays.

That is the need to develop individualized rehabilitation plans before dispositional hearings, implement them upon placement, and update them regularly.

We also recognize prior to this oversight hearing in February, DYRS was able to decrease the overall population at YSC to around 75 youth.

However, since that hearing, there has been a sharp increase in the number of youth held, up to 98 as of May 1st.

We recommend that the committee ask DYRS leadership what strategies they employed to lower the YSC population earlier this year, so emphasis can continue to be placed on moving young people swiftly through YSC, which is intended to be a short-term facility rather than turning to expanding the number of beds.

And turning to new beginnings, this facility has not seen the same level of overcrowding as at YSC, yet the budget proposes a 50% increase in beds.

To emphasize the detrimental impact of potentially incarcerating more children for longer at YSC or New Beginnings, we can look at the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council's report on two year recidivism rates for system involved young people that shows that people who were committed to DYRS had the highest recidivism rates as compared to youth only on probation or who went through a diversion program.

We appreciate Councilmember Parker's continued commitment to improving the education and therapeutic treatment for youth incarcerated at YSC and at New Beginnings.

We asked the committee to consider the asks of youth from the recent round table that they and have also have raised at previous hearings to center what investments will have the most positive impact on young people over more carceral solutions.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, Penelope Spain.

Good morning, Chairperson Parker.

My name is Penelope Spain, and I'm a proud resident of Ward 4 and CEO of Open City Advocates.

My written testimony is quite extensive, but today I'll focus on just two points.

First, DYRS's proposed capital budget includes a misguided 29 million dollars to build 40 new beds in DYRS's locked facilities, 10 at YSC and 30 at New Beginnings.

During the 21 years that I've been working in DC's juvenile legal system, we've consistently fought to reduce the carceral capacity of our city and instead advocated for the expansion of community-based services.

I also see a $1 million for capital improvements to Oakill Youth Center.

Having celebrated the closure of Oakhill, it's profoundly disturbing to see Oakill facility renovation included in the mayor's budget requests.

Please explore the ultimate need or purpose behind that expense.

If it's intended for an eventual step-down program, we would oppose such efforts as they would unnecessarily delay children's return to their families and community.

If youth are placed in some sort of annex or step-down site, please ask what purpose that would serve.

Where would youth go to school or receive support services?

Is the concept for such a program grounded in research and evidence?

DYRS's young people already spend too much time exiled from the district.

I strongly caution against any extension of programming that keeps them from returning to their city, their home, and their families.

Another reason that we strongly stand against the expansion of DYRS's locked facilities is that DYRS is not doing a good job with the capacity it already has.

In February, we testified about New Beginnings failing program model, the absence of regular team decision-making meetings, and treating re-entry as an afterthought rather than a team-created plan.

The auditors' findings on new beginnings are utterly alarming.

No meaningful mental health or substance abuse services, treatment plans failing to address documented disorders, family involvement nearly absent, and a 70% recidivism rate.

The program is failing every which way.

Six months have passed.

The mayor's response is to add more beds rather than to expand or improve upon services.

At this particular moment, when dollars are so scarce, why in the world would we spend more money to lock up more kids in a program that simply doesn't work?

It's time to dedicate those scarce dollars to the programs and services that do work.

And those services are overwhelmingly provided in the community with families involved, not in a jail for kids.

When DYRS Director Abed testifies, I hope you'll explore with him the things that would actually serve the young people open city advocates represents.

Ask about the access to community-based mental health services.

Can we connect children with those services before they leave new beginnings and truly establish a system that strives for continuity of care?

And what efforts has DYRS made to ensure that children are quickly re-enrolled in school upon discharge?

That's still something that my organization is regularly doing, given DYRS's consistent delays and failures.

What improvements have been made in engaging and supporting caregivers and families?

Mental health services, education, substance abuse treatment, family engagement, that's where we should be focusing our attention and our dollars, not more beds that are yielding failing results.

Lastly, I'd like to raise a concern about the well regarded and promising OASIS program, which is funded and run by DYRS.

Sadly, OASE OASIS's outward bound style education program primarily serves youth who are not committed to DYRS and not even in the delinquency system at all.

DYRS youth should have priority access to OASIS.

As far as I'm aware, youth from New Beginnings are occasionally recruited to help build the physical structures at OASIS.

But rather than consistently serving the children who are incarcerated less than a quarter mile away, OASIS serves non-court involved children.

As a prevention program, that's laudable.

But DYRS's mission is quote to give court involved youth the opportunity to become more productive citizens by building on the strengths of youth and their families in the least restrictive, most home like environment with consistent with public safety.

If OASIS is to remain a DYRS funded program, funded and managed by DYRS, DYRS should be looking for ways that each and every one of the youth committed to the agency can benefit from that opportunity.

Thank you, and I'm available to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Um I have Mr.

Ferrer's testimony.

I just want to check here.

On your crieters' written testimony, Magdalena Chongus, can you submit it for us?

Yes, we would certainly.

Nothing.

Unfortunately.

I think we are seeing uh DYS continue to struggle with its planning and implementation.

And one critique I've heard from others that have seen some of these plants is that they're either too general or they are just uh carbon copy of other documents that already exist and don't quite speak to the specific needs that a young person has.

And so that is something we will continue to push on, but that's troubling to hear that you haven't really seen or been engaged around it.

Um I wanted to turn to the bid expansion.

You know, everybody just about talked about that.

And I hear you loud and clear.

Um I have not heard this from the mayor, but I can imagine the executive and the mayor would say, Well, you all have been ranting and raving about overcrowding, and here's our answer to it.

Um, and you touch on a philosoph a philosophy and a difference in philosophy in your testimony, Mr.

Farrierrer.

Um, in part you like we have talked about expanding programming, expanding supports.

I will say there is a level of skepticism, even that I've heard and witnessed from the executive that, you know, there's almost like an eye roll, like here you all go again talking about services programming mental health services.

For those watching that may be inclined to say we have to do something now, and if there's overcrowding and/or if there is a trajectory where juvenile delinquency is on the rise, we should be expanding bids at DRS.

You know, I know you talked about this pretty eloquently in your testimony, but if you could make the case for folks watching, why services, why print programming and mental health services as a more efficient, durable way to go.

I there are a host of ways to answer this.

I'll start with the fact that just to answer your direct question, investing in young people directly, investing in the root in addressing root causes of why they've touched DYRS's system as opposed to just kicking the can down the road by incarcerating them, by excluding them from the community, by removing them from anything productive and positive they have going on, is actually the way to achieve what we all want, which is safe, healthy communities.

And so when we invest in young people directly, when we build up behavioral health services, when we connect them to education and jobs, that lowers recidivism.

That improves outcomes for the young person, which in turn improves outcomes for the community because now they're contributing, they're more likely to pay taxes, they're more likely to be engaged as parents, and they're more likely to help guide the next generation to the type of productive adults that we want.

And so absolutely.

And admittedly, that work takes longer, it's less linear, I would say, than just saying we have a problem, and here's we're gonna how we're gonna detain more young people.

But I I uh appreciate your push there, uh, but I just want to recognize that there is a tension between our engagement with the executive where their philosophical approach is we should be expanding uh opportunity I don't know if they I don't know if it's fair to say they want to detain more youth, but they would say it's just a matter of fact that we should be making more space.

And and just on that point, let's let's assume for the sake of argument that we're gonna have the same number of young people at YSC at New Beginnings, etc., we couldn't be improving the process to move them along more quickly, and that's what the mayor has very intentionally abandoned.

I mean, you look at the fact that DYRS says that they have to they have to have evaluations for the YLS to be completed.

That's just again false.

The YLS does not require evaluations to be done.

The YLS was a tool developed for lay people, and so that's a bottleneck that they've chosen to put into the system that has delayed the process.

But even assuming, even assuming for the sake of argument, that we all agreed psychiatric evaluations are something that we want done before disposition, the executive controls the funding source for the number of evaluators at DBH's court assessment center and could invest in that line item and speed up these evaluations, and so again, even if we were to credit, you know, their rationale for why these psychiatric evaluations, then the answer is let's put more evaluators in the pipeline and get these things done more quickly.

And so they have uh chosen on a host of levels to default to incarceration is the easiest path, and we're gonna rely on that rather than actually investing in young people and a process that would get young people to rehabilitative services more quickly.

Understood.

Uh, one last question, and this is more so for everyone.

If there was a creative way to use some of those capital dollars to expand recreational outlets, um, would that be something that you support?

Absolutely.

I would go, I would take that 29 million dollars and put it as far upstream as we could.

Uh I think DPR is a great place to look for additional investments, particularly in light of the other issues we're trying to address in the city with respect to curfew.

I think looking further upstream and plugging uh non-residential holes in our behavioral health system would be a better thing.

That's interesting.

I was thinking more recreational access for the young people detained at D R S.

And so I think uh Ms.

Crider's testimony, I believe it was where we know many of them are not getting the minimum of the hour of large muscle recreational time.

Um there could be benefit to thinking about how do we expand access there, but it sounds like you're saying even going as you put it further upstream.

So I think if we go further upstream, there are gonna be fewer kids at YSC and New Beginnings, which is going to make it easier to get that large muscle exercise.

So I think we have to look at how we pull other levers to reduce the tensions at YC and New Beginnings that will then make it easier to facilitate some of the places where DRSS is fine.

I understood.

Look at me, I'm blowing through the clock.

Uh Ms.

Kreider, I wanted to come to you.

Uh you mentioned room confinement.

We have had ongoing discussions with the director.

Uh, and they acknowledge that this is an issue in part because of uh disability rights DC's testimony previously and your focus, so thank you for your advocacy in the space.

What progress, if any, have have you seen the agency make around room confinement?

Um thank you for the question.

Um I certainly want to give credit where credit is due.

And from a room confinement perspective, my understanding is that youth are no longer in their rooms during shift change.

Um, and I've gotten um positive feedback on that from youth.

Um my understanding is that from a staffing perspective, that raises some additional challenges, um, but I don't necessarily know details on that um particularly, but um the the no confinement during during shift change from a room confinement perspective is something we were happy to see.

And I know the directors also talked about um digitalizing the log uh that the agency keeps uh I know prior testimonies spoke to it being handwritten and pretty subjective, pretty loose, if and when it was captured at all.

Um, and that too is an area I know the director is working on with this team.

Yeah, so um I've also heard of heard urban parts of those conversations.

Um I think my concern is that at this point um we don't have data for last year, and while we're talking about planning for the future, at this point, my understanding is that no data is being kept for this year either.

So we don't have last year, and we're set up to not have this year either.

Um, and I think it's concerning as far as understanding what's happening in the facilities if we have no immediate plan for collecting that data.

Understood.

And then one last question.

You two oppose the expansion of bits.

Um, you make a pretty clear case, but you also highlight that YDRs are not following protocols and or their engagement with young people, whether that's around restraints or engagement.

I appreciate you pointing out that there are some um exemplars amongst the group where they are going over and beyond in their attention and care for the young people at DRS.

Um, thinking of YDRs in particular.

I have a question of whether or not training is the way to go.

Obviously, we want to double down on training.

How do what is the lever you would encourage us to think about to bring more YDRs in compliance, following the protocols, improving their engagement with young people there at YSC in particular, but D R S as agency?

Certainly, um, the more YDRs we need, the more challenging it becomes.

Um, and disability rights DC would um absolutely agree with what Mr.

Ferrer was saying regarding um putting those investments um as far upstream as we can.

Um I think from an immediate perspective, I think the role requires coaching and redirection in really intensive ways.

And it's also a question I think of oversight, just real-time oversight when you say coaching that's happening in in the moment in the buildings.

Um, yeah.

Yeah, and absolutely, um, and ideally um oversight from um not just within the agency, um, but otherwise as well, um, which I know CCE.

Yes, that's a great layup.

It's like uh uh a great pivot.

Uh Ms.

Chungas, thank you.

Um I have heard you all loud and clear about the over independent oversight office, and so I invite you to share more.

Um how would you distinguish the function of this independent oversight team?

And so one thing that is clear, they could aid in traveling between different facilities to check conditions to check in on young people.

What other aspects could an independent oversight aid with, in your opinion?

I think even looking at what OIM JJFO has done in the past, right?

Having specific reports about specific issues, they had their um fire safety report, um report looking at the behavioral health at new beginnings, so looking at some of these specific um issue areas more in depth and collecting the data that um oftentimes is needed, and as we know, like their dashboard that they were up updating, which I think DYRS is absorbed some of those um c capabilities now, but having making sure that that data is um timely and updated, I think is helpful.

But I think, you know, also, right, in mentioning some of the ongoing lawsuits of DYRS, if the only people that are overseeing those issues are people within DYRS, that is a huge concern, particularly if we're talking about issues like physical and sexual violence that young people are experiencing um at the hands of staff.

So I think that's true.

So I'm hearing you say reporting um uh engaging or oversight as it relates to lawsuits, uh checking in on different facilities, and and the reason why I'm asking this is because this is something we're looking at, but you have to make the case.

And so then my colleague's gonna say, why are we doing this?

Didn't we already have this?

We cut this.

We could use this money for vouchers or something.

Um we are wanting just to make the most compelling case possible.

There's also this argument that I would imagine you would hear from the executive.

Uh, well, that's what the committee is for.

You all are doing the oversight.

I could tell you we don't have the capacity or the breath to be on the ground in DRS every single day or to travel back and forth between different agencies.

It's just not how the council functions.

Uh, but I'd imagine there would be significant pushback uh to re-establishing an oversight arm, uh, but it is something we're actively looking at.

And I would say the law already passed rights to do this, right?

In the so it's just a question of funding.

So I think that demonstrates that there's support to have permit oversight.

Yes, yes.

Um, I think it's worth noting the auditors' pushback, which you cited in your testimony, and the auditor's pushback, it was frankly.

If we hire someone, you all could hire someone.

And uh again, this sense of well, anything that the auditor can do, the council could do, um, and a concern about mission creep.

I also wonder, and this is a genuine wonder, are people's perception about the benefit of an additional bureaucratic oversight office thinking about Mark Jordan?

Uh I think Mark Jordan did a great job, but to create something new, assuming it's not Mark Jordan, you have to detail and spell out.

I can tell you any number of ineffective offices that we've empowered to do X, Y, and Z, that I do wonder if it is not the absolute best person, and the mission is not absolutely airtight.

Are we just spending our wheels wasting our money and proving the naysayers right when they say you this was a waste of time?

Just throwing that out there.

Did you want to respond before I move?

Okay, I'm gonna uh turn to Miss Spain.

Did you want to weigh in there?

But it sounded like you wanted to.

I did.

I I think that um in terms of looking at the Ombuds um office for children.

I think if you look at it from a client-centered or a child-centered and family centered perspective, the breadth of uh areas that we need to explore in this city are far greater than simply the facilities oversight within new beginnings and uh YSC.

I think there are so many young people that we have in out-of-state residential treatment facilities.

That's right.

We have clients who have um completed their therapeutic um rehabilitative processes at those out of state facilities, and yet DYRS is choosing not to bring those children home.

There are so many shortcomings in the case management of young people.

We're not looking at what's happening in the community, our achievement centers, what's happening at the group homes.

I think if you look at this from, you know, taking a cases as the Ombuds Office does right now in the CFSA case and looking at cases that are that are failing or that young people are falling through the cracks, exploring why and where that they are falling through the cracks, it's not just within one facility, it's throughout the entire DYRS matrix.

I would agree with that.

You also spoke about the Oasis program.

I'm a big believer and a fan of the program.

I like you want to see it expanded both for young people not in the system, but also for uh incarcerated youth.

Uh I even wonder should OASIS live with DRS.

I'm not sure it's the right fit.

It could be with DPR and be part of their extended programming.

Um should it be available to incarcerated youth.

Uh, do you have recommendations around operationalizing that?

Sure, I do.

I think that um so you know, historically DYRS has created opportunities for young people who aren't doing well in their programming at new beginnings to receive incentives, right?

To progress more quickly through the levels system, to have home passes.

I think that we could very easily integrate the OASIS program into that, um, into that program in a meaningful way.

Such that, you know, when young people are get to level four, they get to go to the OASIS program once or twice a week, or when other young people from the district are not using that.

Um, you know, there's uh the OASIS program is available to district youth on on the weekends and and on times when they're not in school, but um by the mere proximity, we have this wonderful facility that could be used from three to five o'clock PM, you know, after school, and that could be an incentive program that keeps young people feeling good about their progress.

It's you know, the large muscle, I mean, it just it's such a wonderful opportunity to be in the outdoors, to be physical, to be engaging with animals.

Um there's so many wonderful rehabilitative aspects of that.

Why, if why we're not offering that when it's so easy, it's literally down the street from New Beginnings is uh appalling to me.

Um in terms of where it sits, um I think that that's an open debate.

I do think that in our city we tend to segregate uh young people who are in the delinquency system and only have programs for them, um, as opposed to, and that's not helpful for young people.

I think that we need to do a better job of um, you know, opening up these silos so that if it if it's a DPR run program, it doesn't mean that DYRS can't coordinate with DPR, right?

And then that's creating new opportunities to link with a new agency that's not looking at young people just through the lens of delinquency and control, but much more about you know engaging them in all sorts of activities that might lead to greater engagement and connection when they return home.

So I I think that's my argument, um, but happy to explore that.

Uh thank you for that.

That is something we are gonna look into.

I don't know what the agency would need to operationalize that, but that's something I'll ask the director.

I do want to thank you all for your testimony, Mr.

Ferrer.

I I wanted to ask one last question.

It's not something you talked about.

But on my last visit, I was able to witness um like uh the team checking in with a young person that was hoping to go to the next level in the sequential module process.

And I was struck by how subjective it was.

It was very much based on vibes.

It was like uh, you know, and this is determining whether or not that young person was gonna go to the next level in order to exit detention.

If you have any insight from your experience or recommendations for how we can tighten that process through this budget process, and I open that up for anybody, but um I figure maybe based on some of your clients or team members, you might have some insight there.

Sure.

I think your description of vibes is a great way to describe it, unfortunately.

Uh, and I think it's vibes throughout, and it starts with the planning process.

You raised earlier, plans are often not individualized.

The level system is often not individualized as a result.

And so young people are being measured against metrics that aren't necessarily relevant to them, which means that it's not actually helping the rehabilitative process.

And so as a result, it ends up in just being vibes.

Is this kid kind of doing well?

Are they not doing well?

Do people like him or do people like her?

Uh and it's not a kind of harder, kind of more consistent metric.

And so I think it starts with more than anything the planning process and individualizing service plans and services and needs and addressing the needs of each form that process.

Yeah, I I would say two things struck me in that observation.

Um I'm trying not to say too much, but the young person met their goals, and everybody praised them like you met your goals, but then it was couched in you're shy, you don't talk enough, and so therefore we're not sure if we're gonna give you the next level.

And it that was like mind blowing to me that you just praise them for behaviorally meeting their goals, but because of a personality trait, they might be held back, and then secondly, when I then afterwards asked, Well, when will they be able to revisit to go to the next level?

It was uh, you know, maybe two weeks, three weeks, another month.

It it was again just vibes, it felt very loose, and we're talking about people's lives.

Uh anyway, uh, I was really troubled by that.

Yeah, and let me add just one more quick layer to that, right?

This idea of shy could be this young person has experienced trauma.

It could be an underlying disability that's not being addressed or accommodated.

And so I think that is a great example of kind of all the layers that are being missed in the lack of individualized planning.

I will say I have had a case, one case recently, where I thought DYRS did recognize the extensive needs of a young person and did tend to address those well, but that has been the outlier in my experience, not the level more about when you say they tended to their needs through the planning process, or we pushed and we were able to get, for instance, speech and language pathology to be and people understood kind of the the cognitive level that the young person was at, um, in a way that they really work to help the young person through the level system.

I don't do um, but that has been an outlier, not so zooming out again, you would say the lever it are those rehabilitation plans and allowing that to bleed through the entire process, correct?

Yeah, anybody else want to jump in before we go to the next panel?

Just very briefly, I just wanted to echo what Mr.

Ferrer said there, and he said, you know, we pushed, right?

And young people, if they don't have a really strong advocate or lawyer who is pushing for from day one for those plans to be individualized, they simply are not being done.

So I just want to say that like advocacy is critical here, and I think that this is why I push so hard on family advocacy and family engagement, because so often um young people's parents are the ones who are best able to advocate for their young people to be individualized.

Another thing I want to say is that we're talking a lot about um discharge planning process, and I keep saying it needs to start from day one.

We need to know where we're trying to go with this young person from the beginning, and that plan and the pro and the program needs to be tailored accordingly, and I think that's why we're seeing 70% upwards of 70% recidivism rates for new beginnings, because it is clear it's just this cookie cutter approach.

I think what we need to be doing is uh much more akin to what happens in the school context with IEPs with individualized plans that we mark them.

We know we know what the progress is.

It's you know, not not a it's not a perfect analogy, but it really is about the individualization that simply um does not happen, especially when young people don't have a strong advocate at the table for them.

Absolutely.

I smirked because I I think many people would tell you it's not happening there either.

Uh, but the point is well taken.

Uh but thank you all for your testimony.

Um, and I was a little flexible with time because we really are trying to get this right through this budget.

So thank you to those waiting um to testify.

Uh next, we will hear from Joshua Miller with open city advocates, Jordan Tooney, uh, with Thrive Under 25, or is it Tony?

Tony.

Peggy Ramin, ACLU, DC.

And Peggy is online.

Antonio Myers.

Antonio Myers.

Gail Abbott.

Nini Taylor.

And Marcel Quinn.

Okay.

Well, Marcel, when he comes back, Janice Patterson.

Or Mama Joe.

Nano.

She's not a one.

Okay.

So I'm gonna go through that list one more time.

We have uh Joshua Miller, Jordan Tony, and then Peggy Ramin is online.

Antonio Myers not seeing, Gil Avant, not seeing, Nini Taylor, not seeing, Marcel Queen is out of the room but coming back, and then Mama Joe.

All right.

Uh Mr.

Miller, you can begin.

Hello.

Um Chairperson Parker and members, well, members of your staff.

Um twice a month I visit uh YSC and um meet with the youth council there.

The open city advocates and the public defender service jointly facilitate these visits with separate sessions for committed youth and Title 16 youth.

Uh I just want to share a few things that I've been hearing.

Uh the facility provided soap is causing skin breakouts because it's not the kind of soap that African American young uh men and women need.

Um the hair products cause uh hair breakage.

The youth reported that meal portions were small and that the food was undercooked or uncooked.

During Ramadan, dates provided for breakfast for breaking their fast, sorry, not breakfast, um, spoiled before the youth could use them.

The two snack in the room in the room limit, which is designed to prevent hoarding, uh, made it impossible for fasting youth to store food for meals outside of standard service times.

Uh the Title 16 youth share one phone amongst 11 people, and they often don't have enough time to use it on the weekends.

There's one barber for the entire facility, and the Title 16 youth say that they do not get privileged access.

So they often don't um have the ability to get a haircut at the right time.

Um the Title 16 youth often mention that they have no access to credible messengers, to social workers or case managers, no judges visit their units, no council members either.

Um, and one young person told me uh in his words, them are in shirts mean something, right?

The children on the ATU unit uh wear different colored uniforms and they feel that stigma.

So communication problems are a major theme in our conversations.

Programs promise do not arrive.

Snacks distributed at events are confiscated during searches right afterwards, questions go unanswered.

On one visit, a YDR said, and I'm quoting, I was standing right there.

Uh if it's not your turn, you don't need to know anything about it.

Staff have even been asked to leave youth council sessions for repeatedly interrupting the youth.

So they're there in the room and they just want to chime in.

Um, and they've been asked by other YDRs to leave.

So one thing worth noting.

These criticisms are real, but sometimes the young people people will speak like very highly of their YDRs.

They're often fans of the YDRs who make it into the room.

Um they describe their care coordinators by contrast as deceptive, manipulative, and uncaring.

This suggests to me and to others that case management is still struggling with uh the staffing issues they've seen, uh, even where some lime staff are doing right by youth.

Many of the issues we hear have been raised in earlier youth council sessions, but were only temporarily resolved.

Correlative corrective actions are not surviving the staff turnovers and operational changes we've seen over the last six months.

The convergence across different populations, at different times, different youth, suggests that simple things like hygiene access are just not being addressed at the facility level.

This is the agency that the mayor thinks needs a raise while everyone else tightens their belts.

The mayor's response to the auditors' documentation of operational and programmatic failures is a construction plan.

Not remediation.

The district should fix what is broken before adding beds to YSC and new beginnings, at which point the new the new units won't be needed.

We would ask you to ask DRS in this hearing and throughout this budget process about the conditions youth are reporting from inside the facilities.

So in my written testimony, I have a lot more to say about all this.

But I I did want to sort of make sure that we have an opportunity to talk about some of the OMBs and oversight issues at some point.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, we will have Jordan Tony.

Good morning, Chairman Parker.

And thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

My name is Jordan Tony, and I'm here today representing the Thrive Under 25 coalition.

We advocate for anyone who enters DC's adult judicial system before the age of 25.

I am part of the emergent adult cohort leadership team.

I'm also a free man's port ambassador and change maker using my lived experience of incarceration to prevent youth violence.

I recently completed an internship on Capitol Hill with Congresswoman Terry Sewell's office.

Today I'm here to urge the council to redirect funds allocated to build in more beds for young people and lock facilities to community-based solutions.

We know from neuroscience that harm is caused to youth development when they are placed in confinement.

It also breaks crucial ties to family, school, and community connections.

Research shows it lowers the chances of young people completed high school and raises their chances of ending up in adult jails and prisons.

While I myself was not in custody of DYRS, I did experience the harmful impacts of incarceration as a 17-year-old at the DC jail.

I was fortunate that I did not have to experience an extended amount of time incarcerated, but even a short amount of time as a long-term effect.

This is why I am so committed to community-based programming, not incarceration.

We need this money to go into community programs, aimed at mental health treatment, mentoring, education, youth development, and more, not more beds for youth to be locked away from opportunities and locked into a future filled with traumatic effects of incarceration.

Budget send a strong message about what we believe in.

Please believe in youth and build possibilities, not bears and lock facilities.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, we will go online to Peggy Ramin.

Good morning, Chairperson Parker.

My name is Peggy Raymond.

I'm the policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to present testimony today on behalf of our over 14,000 members and supporters across the district.

Our testimony addresses our recommendations regarding the district's FY27 budget for DYRS.

The ACLU of DC supports stable funding levels for DYRS, but funds must be appropriately used by the agency to fulfill its commitment to improving conditions and access to programming and placements for young people that support rehabilitation and address recidivism.

We believe investment in our justice-involved young people help uh helps the district's young residents grow into healthy, successful adults, which will in turn make our communities safer.

We continue to support the overarching goal of reducing the number of children that are in custody in the district overall.

To accomplish this, we know the district must also fully fund the programs and resources young people and their families need in the community to lead healthy, productive, and safe lives.

A goal we know that you are committed to, Councilmember Parker.

A recent report, Building Safety Through Resources, A Better Path to Public Safety in DC, outlines a number of ways DC can better invest in community safety and security by supporting families, our young people, and community reentry.

We believe FY27 funds must be used by DYRS to address existing issues and improve overall quality and delivery of programming and services to youth.

Although we recognize some improvements have been made, basic health and safety concerns continue to be at issue for youth in DYRS custody, including issues with overcrowding, physical altercations, access to behavioral health services, and adequate programming, as we've heard from uh many colleagues today.

Additionally, when it does come time for a young person to return to the community, discharge and reentry planning often falls short for children and their families.

Despite this, the FY27 proposed budget for DYRS cuts funding in a number of budget areas that could help to alleviate some of these issues, including decreases in funding for case management, economic opportunities development, youth engagement, and community outreach.

We are troubled that the proposed FY27 budget does not maintain investment in budget lines that support, for example, individualized case management and planning with youth and their families, educational and professional development opportunities and programming, violence preventative services and support programs, or community-based support services and outreach.

DYRS funding should not skew toward increasing the capacity of its facilities to incarcerate even more children while chronic understaffing and programming and service availability for kids currently in custody remains at issue.

We hope DYRS will address why its proposed budget cuts important budget lines that provide programs and services to children and how it will address existing gaps for children currently in custody and improve re-entry into the community that will support kids' success.

Justice involved young people and their families need more investment in intervention, programming, and resources, not less.

We seek to limit the current system's harm and reach and to transform the district's approach to safety into a system focused on prevention, not punishment.

Ultimately, this means dramatically reducing the number of kids in custody in the district and providing community investments that will address the root of youth involvement in the system.

As we work toward that fundamental goal, we urge council to provide full and stable funding to DYRS to address the well-documented need for improved access to programs, rehabilitation, treatment, and re-entry services to kids in custody.

DYRS must also do its part to use this much needed funding to provide those programs and services that invest in the health, safety, and future success of kids in the district.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, we will have Marcel Queen.

Hello, I don't know.

So I want to start off because I have two different issues.

My first issue is regarding the Navy R.

And then I would like to speak about the YC.

So is it why I'll be able to do both of the sunshine?

Thank you.

So I share a unique role in uh inside of the District of Columbia because I have my own organization and I have been having my own organization for the last four to five years, and also I have sit on some of the boards and work with most of the district partners that actually engage with you.

So from trigger projects to Guns Down Friday to the one's office and multiple other agencies.

And I do things in different agencies across the country for what I know how to do.

So the first thing I want to start about is Navy Yard.

I come up I have came up with a complex, a complex way to actually solve it.

I sat yesterday with I had a meeting with the bid of Navy Yard.

Navy Yard bids said they uh they would love to support my idea.

I I've actually found a location, right?

And the location I found is called the Gateway DC on 2700 Mart Martin Luther King Avenue.

It's an enclosed area.

It's a one way in, one way out.

Kids can't hop over the fence.

I sat with the youth council and the youth council with all the kids.

I took down everything what they would like to do to see as programming, right?

And we um I came up with a uh uh uh a compartilized list of what they what what exactly would they would like to see what they would exactly be done from there I sat with the captain and MPD and PD said that they would they would love to support.

I've been having meetings with MPD and also um I have over 75 volunteers and also um Readers has partnered and uh DC Black Broadway, just numerous partners, and you know I'm on like the the third stage of actually trying to acquire the property and donations have been coming.

I've actually when I had the meeting with Navy um the bed of Navy Yard, I said, hey, since the um the the the they have to kind of go in the house by 10 o'clock, less make a strategy, I said because we know that business owners, people that want to go out with their family in Navy Yard, since Six Flags has closed, right?

There is no legitimate place for them to go, right?

And they they always advocated about themselves, they want to be kids, they just want to have fun, right?

But it has to be a more structured way of of going about.

Uh nothing against DPR.

Uh I see once they leave the DPR situation, I feel like they just kind of just let go and they just can just run around, right?

Um so I came up with a transportation, uh a transportation um plan.

Inside of the transportation plan, I have a meeting, um, well, I'm trying to set a meeting with um Metro.

I want to have Metro State, I want to have a metro bus that picks up kids from four quadrants of the city and actually direct it to this uh place I found Gateway DC.

Um then from there I spoke to DCPS, DCPS.

I said, can we actually you know find the kids that because people that work with the kids every day, we know who we're dealing with, right?

So um that's my next stage of trying to actually figure out uh parents we can engage with and things like that.

Um so I would like to have a further meeting with you as far when I get everything all together, but it has come a very far away.

Dr.

Mitchell has also supported and Dr.

Mitchell's uh I ev all my close connections have actually came in um and it's coming together.

So that's something I would like to share with you.

And when it comes to DY, um, my dual role is also I'm a YDR, right?

So I also do a lot of strategic planning for youth, but at the same time I actually work as a YDR inside of DYRES at the same time, right?

So I can share some of my personal experiences, right?

Of some of the things that uh that I see.

I know we talk about room confinement and we talk about um and actually the more beds, as for me as an advocate, I would recommend more beds, right?

Because for me, as for me as a wide yard, you gotta when it's overcrowded when sometimes it's overcrowded, I might have 14 kids on here, right?

It's two staff, and you have to realize from a staff perspective, excuse me, these are like my kids for real.

Because I I do a lot of hours, right, from six o'clock in the morning to about eleven at night, right?

So each kid has its own the individual behaviors I have to manage.

I have to oversee their growth, right?

I have to see a lot of things that's going on.

So when it is overcrowded, and when something goes on, because they're also kids and are also growing.

So if a fight break off or something goes left, a lot can happen.

We we I know that you know through the news and advocates, I hear a lot of oh, a lot of kids are being hurt, a lot of kids are violent attacks and stuff like that.

But if you can separate some of them, right, to keep the to keep the numbers down, because we can't just blame D V Rest for everything.

Yeah, I'm gonna jump in here with questions, and if you don't mind, I would pick up there.

Um that's an interesting perspective.

And so what would you say if somebody were to say, well, why not just hire more staff or more YDRs so that you don't just have two per 14?

That shouldn't be the ratio, by the way.

But yeah, but even in ratio, if if the facility is has too many kids, yeah, we have to make a way to make it happen, right?

Because they have to they have to still be there right until they go to the next judicial process, right?

So even though that is not the ratio, but sometimes that's that's that's what it is, though.

In reality, what plays out.

No, I get that.

So um to your question though, right?

Your question was adding more staff.

Can you imagine?

This right is what 10 people.

Can you imagine having 14 kids?

And kids are not there for no reason, right?

So, can you imagine trying to?

Hey, come on, let's sit down, guys.

Hey, we're gonna watch TV.

Hey, we're trying to do this, how we're trying to do this, trying to do this.

The beds are more needed for safety reasons.

Even for school, you know, I transition my kids from school at system.

They have to be in school by seven o'clock.

I excuse me if I'm wrong.

I have to transition here.

All my kids up for school.

I have to make sure they.

And I teach my kids to make their bed.

I still have to teach them manly things in the process because a lot of kids don't come from households that have understanding.

I have to transition all my kids over.

I have to transition my kids over, and then I have to make my kids that like somebody said that has an IEP and ADHD, whoever knows, because we you know at YC, we're not at that process yet, right?

So to behavioral manage it, right?

And then I have to make all my kids sit down and listen to a teacher when both of them have not been going to school.

Okay.

That is a lot to be.

It is a lot.

I I totally sympathize with that.

Um, and I take to heart your testimony.

I wanted to ask something separately, and then I am gonna come to others in terms of training or support that YDRs receive from the agency.

Can you speak to that?

So, and and if I could just say a little bit more.

The reason why I'm asking that is because what I'm hearing from you is what I suspect that YDRs are stretched in, they're stressed, they're overwhelmed, it's a high, it's a hard job.

You know, it's a higher caseload.

So, what support are you receiving from the agency, if anything?

I mean, and there's one more thing I want to ask.

Sorry, but um, I want to say to your question, like I said from my background, right, because I work with kids coming from I work with kids from the household before I even came working with incarcerated kids, right?

And I and I want to add that the hardest, we're dealing with human, this is a human being thing, right?

We can't put stuff on D West and try to manage them better and stuff, but at the end, we're dealing with kids, right?

And we're dealing with kids that are coming through everyday struggles, right?

And and like I said before, I love all my kids.

One of my kids just one of my kids just died.

I had to go to the funeral.

You get on drugs, like, man.

And it's a lot.

You get on drugs, totally, totally.

No, I um but we all support each other like we all go through that.

You can you imagine how many kids that we see keep coming back?

It's kids I've seen come back just because they don't have food and clothes at home.

And it's not because we don't provide the structure, it's because the household.

Yeah.

I seen kids, you know, I mean about it.

When I'm walking around, and kids be like Queen, they address me by Queen.

That's how I know it's my kids in the street.

Hey, you got some money, right?

Get some food.

We is it's really the family dynamic.

We're not it the we can't, you know, it's it's it's the households that's the structures.

I got it.

One more question.

Then I'm gonna pivot.

Uh, there was a significant cut to credible messages in this budget.

Uh, can you speak to how you work with the credible messenger team at DRS, and or what value you've seen in that program?

So I so to be honest with you, I also want to peace academy.

So for me working inside the community, I already know a lot of the um credible messages from me graduating from different uh district trainings for me to do this work.

So to be hon I already had a lot of their numbers, so like with me, I keep I keep um seeing where my kid is going.

But what do you think is the impact if we come to the program?

Yeah, so like with my kid, like since I'm dealing with a kid on everyday basis, and there's certain things I'm instilling in them, correct, right?

So I'm always speaking about school, I'm always speaking about your hygiene, I'm always speaking about how to deal with friends and family and de-escalation, correct?

But once they leave with me, and sometimes as a YDR, we're like the the closest thing to a parent and the most consistency that they have, right?

When it comes to the credible messages, the credible messages are there with them, and then they go to their schools and they go to their outside state transition.

So with me, I keep in contact with the um the credible messengers because they're actually part of their whole life layout.

I'm only restricted to a certain piece, right?

But they're actually because once they leave, they're going to their school.

Once they leave um YC, and then from there they're dealing with the parents.

Then they're dealing with they're really like the piece of life that that makes sure that our messages keep going along with our kids, though.

Does that really make sense what I mean?

It does make a lot of sense.

And again, this budget, I think was it the number 70%.

It's uh it's a significant cut in that program, which to me would mean young people wouldn't have that support in the community, or those outlets for additional mentorship and and support.

Yeah, I I like the credible messages.

I think I think that's the it's it's a it's a bomb program, and a lot of the credible messages have have uh return of citizens, so they they know the struggle with it.

They know how to they know the struggle, so they kind of respect them more than just a regular, like that does that don't understand the their walk of life, right?

Understood.

Thank you for that.

Oh, one more that's the last thing I want to add, I'm sorry.

Another thing that uh that is uh uh a tremendous issue that I also see is the room confined.

I noticed by being a YDR that from from an advocacy and stuff like that, you know a kid can throw a trash can, assault a child, spit on the throws of the can only be in their room for fifteen minutes.

With the door open.

All right, and if you're coming from a household, right, where you're not listening to your mother, right?

You're not listening to school, you're not listening to anything.

Now you're coming into a structured environment to to basically tighten up what you have going on with yourself.

A lot of kids, you know, when I work with for me working there, I'm like, okay, it's it's at this point.

I've talked to you.

At this point, you're out of control in school.

At this point, you hear somebody, I need you to take step in your room for you can re eval reevaluate yourself.

They and the kids be like, they say we can only build our room for 15 minutes, and the door gotta be open.

So I don't care, I'm gonna do whatever I want to do.

This is a joke.

So then when it comes to staff morale, a lot of staff at what at YC would be like, oh, why am I even saying anything to them?

All they're gonna do is complain to the advocate, and then they and then they just say they feel like it's a joke.

They feel like we can't, they feel like, oh, we we're just gonna go tell our lawyers.

And this tension that you're spelling out is um, not to put words in your mouth, but I'm um sensing like YDRs and others are on the ground doing the work, and you're you're spelling out some of the challenges and how to either rema maintain order and or actually uh support the young people.

We can't support them.

Uh folks not necessarily doing the work are advocating for it.

If there's a tension there, if you're not actually in the building, right?

If you're not actually noticing a child's behavior, right, all day long, you're advocating, right?

You're saying this, this, and this.

The kids feel like why I see a new beginners, they can just do what they want to do.

They they honestly feel like I don't have to go to my room.

You can't put me in my room I don't care if I cuss the teacher out I don't care if you let's follow that train of thought what do you think would change that are you saying more room confinement more bits more carceral systems would what I'm saying is it has to be a it has to be a system in place for right you'll have understanding right that this is this is this is not the way to go understood.

It's not about penalizing right it's not about anything like that.

It's not about harming them in any type of way.

It's about I want you to leave here right go home and become a citizen but if if if you don't understand rules and guidelines and you don't understand structure we're setting them up you know how many kids I see go to the out of state programs they come right back.

You know how many kids I see that come it is it's not just because of the is DYRES really under fire by a lot of other things.

So they're like hey this is this is the way we have to go about it but what we're really doing is harming them right because DY hand DYRS hands are to be honest outside how can you how can you smack the teacher and throw some of the teacher face and then be like you can go in your room with the door open.

And then 15 minutes you can come back out but then the teacher don't want to teach no more it is it's it then you distract the whole class then nobody's learning everybody don't want to listen everybody's like I can do what I want I want it thank you thank you truly thank you.

Uh Mr Tony Tony I wanted to come to you um as someone who's been in a detention system in a setting can you speak to that tension that we were just talking about that there are real challenges both in terms of behavior but also ensuring that the young people in DRS care are on a more productive path when they leave out um in your testimony you you talked about not expanding bids but also addressing the root causes of what might help the young people like what might that be in the short term that you can and invest in and do.

Yes um I will emphasize um mental health resources within the community um also expanding upon things like um potentially the summer youth employment program you know uh a lot of times youth are simply um looking for things to do whether that's outside of their community or um after school different things of that nature so um I feel like a lot of the community based solutions that are provided will be effective if um provided um the correct budget for it and instead of um you know allocating money to more beds um within the system thank you for that Mr.

Miller you talked about like some very specific challenges from the soap to hair products to uh food not being fresh um and so I will follow up with the director on that I did want to uh talk about the credible messenger piece with you what are you what are some of the challenges you foresee if the cuts to the credible messenger program are sustained.

Well I think um we all work with credible messengers quite a lot and they are some of the most valuable mentors that our clients encounter um you know I I could see a world in which that budget was doubled and it would be a really good investment um because you know they're often stretched thin they're asked they're asked to work with a lot of different young people and sometimes they connect well with some and not with others.

And so in an ideal world, there would be way too many credible messengers and some wouldn't have enough to do.

But that's not the the situation that we find ourselves in.

If we were to sort of increase that program to sort of professionalize it even more, and sometimes I think that also means increasing the pay so that it's a desirable program, so that you know it's not like the first job that somebody wants to get, but it's the job that they want to keep for for years and and decades, even because they, you know, the longer they spend at it, the more expertise they have in that particular role.

I think that would be really great.

Um and is the kind of thing that we need.

Um if you don't mind, I just want to mention one thing, which is that um, you know, uh what I I have observed is that you know, a lot of the YDRs really need more support than they're getting.

Um, and I think that, you know, for them, often the sort of rights and needs of the young people that they serve are their conditions of employment, right?

So it's really difficult for them to sort of experience the the trauma and the secondary trauma of that work and then be thrown back into another double shift.

Um and so you asked the previous panel, like why are we spending all this money on overtime when we could be spending on hiring?

And I would just I would sort of double endorse that.

You know, if if the world were such that um we had the resources that we needed, and that money was spent on hiring a lot more YDRs, and um reducing the overtime needs and making it such that that's a job that people can make a career out of.

I think that would be a good thing to do.

But at that point, I would say I imagine the agency would say, Yeah, we want to hire, it's hard to hire people for these positions.

Yeah.

Uh I think the executive would also say, frankly, you have a number of people that's kind of gaming the system.

Now, I'm not supposed to say that, but I'm gonna say that you have a number of people that have stacked the leaves that they're on the payroll, but they're actually not showing up.

So I'm not justifying the overtime, but I imagine that's what we're gonna hear, and those are very real challenges.

Um that point, uh, Mr.

Queen, I wanted to, you know, uh in terms of staff morale and then um hiring, what steps could we take to improve staff morale there at the agency?

So in my opinion, Mark, um, I see a lot of different classes come through.

Like a lot of different classes.

This work is not just cut out for anybody.

I've seen groups of 20 come in here and then they see they like, oh no.

I'm not I don't want to say 20.

Like people that staff members, staff that got hired, and they just like we might keep six, right?

And then from there, what I see is to work with kids, it's like a it's like a gift, right?

And and then you might not just not have that gift, right?

And so then like all my like my co-workers that that's but my co-workers are amazing, and I'm not saying there's not some ones that come through that just happen to come through, but the ones that's been situated and have understanding, that's their God's gift, right?

But what could we do or advocate for to improve morale or help the staff there so that they can stay?

So be honest with you, is is it's like what I said is the it's it's it's hard to control it's hard it's very hard to control of how the setting is though, you know.

Like it's it's it you it's like you almost control by the kids.

If it's a if you want to be honest with you, because of how the laws are set up, like you know, recently we're not allowed to put the like you know, shift change.

So when I'm leaving from 2 30, right?

That means I have to from when I leave shift change, right?

I have to pass over the keys.

I have to inform the next group of staff that's coming over to the next ship.

I have to be like, hey, I need you to watch out for him, him, him.

They had a petty little argument, but I don't know what can transpire.

Um, what's the nice stomach is hurting?

I already informed the nurse, right?

But can you do a quick checkup, right?

I have to I have all these duties because my duties are to the kids and their needs, right?

But you know, due to the like the room confinement, you know, we're not.

They used to go inside the room for the 30-minute process of us.

I have to clean up, get the area back in in fact, right?

And I have to do my programming.

So, you know, I have to do programming, and I have to make my program and it makes their day go fast.

Because they're kids.

I'm like, okay, we're gonna have cars, I'm gonna do some art stuff, I have to do this, this, this, and this.

But now, because due to the room confinement thing, they they just stay out throughout shift uh shift break, and then I don't I don't even have enough time to get myself prepared to even prepare for them to start our day.

I got it.

Um, thank you for that.

Uh Miss Raymond, I did want to come to you.

Uh, you talked about addressing the root causes as well.

That seems to be a theme today.

Um, and it's you know, it's something I'm sympathetic to, like more specifically, if I could ask you to weigh in on the re-entry support.

Um, what more could we be doing to ensure that when our young people are leaving detention that they are reintroduced to society so that they're not just coming back?

Along to your staff, but I think one thing that we've been thinking, and I know that you and your staff have been thinking about, um, is you know, investment in community-based programming.

So, what programs can we provide through DPR to young people that are re-entering so that they have safe spaces to go, um, you know, after school, um, and at night, uh, places where they can hang out with their friends and you know, where parents and guardians can know that they are safe while those parents and guardians may be at work, for example.

So I think that's one thing is just making sure that we have safe um spaces for our young people to gather and spaces that they actually want to be in, right?

So we really want to thank you, council member, for holding that youth forum and would love to see more events like that so that we can make sure that um, you know, kids are informing what types of programming and services uh places like DPR and their rec centers are offering.

I also want to mention that, you know, and we echo lots of recommendations uh to this, and in the report that I mentioned that ACLU DC released, but we want to make sure that families are supported as well, right?

So, are we investing in things like the DC Child Tax Credit and child care subsidies in uh, you know, food and nutrition services, lots of holistic wraparound services and programming that support families who are welcoming a kid who is re-entering and making sure that that reentry is as smooth as possible.

Thank you for that.

Um, and I appreciate the plug for the child tax credit.

It's an important policy, and then in a budget season where everything is cut, uh, it just becomes that much more difficult to get worthwhile programs over the finish line.

I want to thank you all for your testimony.

Um, and I will be sure to follow up with the director.

Um, I am told Gail Avan is here, and then we also have Janice Patterson, uh, affectionately referred to as Mama Joe.

Um, after they share, uh, I will recess for about 10 to 15 minutes, uh, so I can hopefully get to the DPR hearing momentarily, and then we'll take the director.

Good to see you all.

Uh so again, Gail Abbant and Janice Patterson.

Yep.

Uh can you hear me?

Can you see?

Wait a minute.

I'm here.

We could see you now, and uh you could give your testimony.

Thank you.

Uh good morning, Councilman Parker and other council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony today.

My name is Gail Avent, I'm a uh resident of Ward 7, and I'm a mother of my grandmother and the CEO and founder of Total Family Care Coalition.

TFCC.

I'm here today because the district is considering that something that will shape the lives of our young people for decades, whether we need two youth detention centers based on the data, the research, and what we see every day working with youth and families, the answer is no.

The district does not need two detention centers.

We need accountability, coordination, and community-based solutions that work.

TFCC promote family peer support.

On a personal note, I have a son that was committed to DYS.

His life has been connected to system after system.

Whether it was juvenile system, adult justice system, systems can never be apparent to our children.

Should you approve the funding for the uh second detention center?

Think about how many youth you that would lose sight of their dreams and aspirations.

Let's talk about some numbers.

Overcrime at YSC is not a big capacity problem.

It is a system problem.

Average daily uh population at YSC has risen, even though youth tribe has not.

More than 40% of the detention detainees are held longer than necessary due to court delays, lack of placement, and slow case processing.

Linton state has increased, not because youth are more dangerous, but because the system is slower.

If we build a second detention center, we will simply double the space for the same end efficiencies.

Families are uh disabled when youth are uh detained longer than necessary.

Research shows that family engagement goes down between 40 and 6%.

Parents do not feel comfortable in going into a facility to be uh searched and possibly script searched when we try to get dissertation with the children.

Some oversight was removed, those problems has not improved.

Building a second facility with our oversight guaranteed the failures, and we'd be reciprocated in a new building.

Good community-based program consistently reduce recidivism more effectively than detention and at a fraction of the cost.

Every dollar spent on a second detention center is not a dollar spent on intervention that actually keep kids safe.

The question before you is not whether we care about youth safety.

We all do.

The question for this council is do you invest in what works?

A second youth detention center will not reduce violence, it will not improve outcomes, it will not strengthen public safety.

What will strengthen public safety is restoring independent oversight, finding the fixing the bottleneck that keep youth detained unnecessarily, expanding community-based initiative, including family support program, and keeping youth connected to their families and community.

Our young people deserve solutions rooted in evidence and accountability and hope, not more sales.

Thank you for the time and the commitment to youth and families of the District of Columbia.

I will take any questions you have before me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm glad we waited for you.

I appreciated your testimony.

And then last but certainly not least, uh, Ms.

Patterson.

Good morning, council member and staff and also my partners over here to the left and uh Dr.

Gail and you know you have all my respect.

Uh glad that you were here.

Um, as councilmember Parker knows by now, mostly all the council members, I've given enough written testimonies for a lifetime.

So I'm just going to speak from heart.

I I just want to pose one question, and that is, what about the children?

And I think we all need to resonate with that.

What about the children?

And when we talk about investments, um, as Ms.

Gale said, we already know the history of our dark and brown communities and how we thrive through the community village, families, and also what we call human skills and whoever touch us or work with us.

And so I heard you say, What's the morale?

What is it that we can do?

What we can do is first sharpen our human skills.

And if we talk about the climate of our facility and the climate of why we have created decades of histories of family run organizations, and we need to question ourselves why only one, two, or three white kids come through our system, and our kids come multiple times.

We have an 11-year-old that's been there eleven times, or 12-year-old who's been there 13 times.

So we have to look at, I've heard housing, I've heard all of these things that we're talking about, Councilmember Parker.

But we have to invest in what match the cultural need of each individual child that we serve.

We do not have mom and dad.

We do not have family.

Matter of fact, I had the biggest war with Ronald Moton about parents this morning, and about we don't need to invest in them and on and on and on.

But we want we I won the battle, you know.

The point of it is that we keep thinking, like y'all, y'all might say we're lived experience, we're peer specialists, but y'all live the experience and y'all peer specialists and y'all have the same peers and y'all have good kids and bad kids, and so do we.

But what is the easy thing as I tell my judges, you can call another judge, or you can call your resource, or you have resources, okay?

Our resources are ourselves.

We talk about disparities, every grant, every proposal goes in, we list Ward 8, Ward 7 in the spirit.

It's not disparities, we have survived poverty all our lives.

It's about poverty of the spirit.

So I wanna just keep it natural and and um Dr.

Gale, family engagement is the key.

I actually was gonna get up here and just say, fun parent watch.

Because really, we're here every day, all day.

Dr.

Gail event, and you want to know how we can provide service, it's because relationships and partnerships.

How can a um 75-year-old woman do all this work without a dime?

It's because of relationships.

My relationship with you, my relationship with you, my relations and don't have to wait for me to tell.

I tell.

I'm not an informant, I tell what I see, and I don't tell for us to rumble with each other.

I tell us so we can work.

I tell my deputy director, my director all the time.

You said the morale of the staff.

First of all, they gotta come in the door wanting to be there, they gotta come in there understanding the population and the target population that we're served.

You have to understand that when a family comes in there, you know, you might smell this, you smell that.

Well, I'm trying to figure out what group of group of children and family are you working with that you don't even know that.

It shouldn't even be a discussion, it shouldn't even be a conversation.

And we have all of our advocates and our colleagues and our PDS attorneys and everyone here.

We should be asking, what is wrong with us that we we all together?

Why are children suffering?

And I have this conversation all the time with my director, the deputy director, and the staff because it's a real question, and my advocates are back there.

Is something wrong that we all begin need to begin to look at us, that we got kids being rebooked, we got kids that are acting out.

We gotta look at ourselves, and thank you, Gail, for multiple years and decades of systemic failure.

We always trying to fix us, but we don't want to fix the system.

So that's what I have to say.

And the other thing I want to congratulate you on that meaning uh last week, and the fact that those children were so bright, it brings tears to my eyes that all of us should be activated to really do something.

They say it's not a team gathering, they're just trying to go someplace and have a good time, and we have to also hold our National Guard responsible, the Metro Transit Police responsible, MPD, because I just happened, God just happened to have me down there at the waterfront at dinner, and my family was like, I don't want to have to fight, but I put 600 kids on a train.

And we had all these policing, all of this.

So I'm just saying to you, human skills is a key factor on how we're gonna transform our young people and working on the poverty of their spirit.

That's what we gotta, we gotta, we gotta address.

And so everyone, including all my directors, you know, we want y'all, we're gonna get some shirts, and we're gonna do parent YouTube, Councilmember Parker.

We're gonna go down to these train stations every night.

I I worry about my grandson coming home from work.

75 National Guards stood in front of a train station entrance.

Okay, five hundred kids all over the place.

No one's moving to see how they can get on the train.

So I leave my nephew's birthday dinner and go up because I want y'all to look at this picture, not to mention it's armed National Guard, so it's not just National Guards.

Yeah, it's National Which we should be concerned about.

You're right, but it's National Guards and and Mr.

Parker.

I watched the setup, they blocked the national, they blocked it.

I do have a couple of questions for you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Uh is it Dr.

Avent?

It's Gail.

I'll call the doctor.

Okay.

Well, all right.

Well, I'll call you Miss Avent.

Uh I was gonna elevate you, but um thank you for your testimony.

Um Ms.

Patterson, I wanted to just ask how many people are part of the parent watch team.

I know this funding issue has come up for years, and so how are you all being sustained currently, or is this purely volunteer up until this point?

Well, we'll start with first um a one woman's orchestra, and then we're gonna start with 40 years of doing this work and having relationships from the top to the bottom to the crevices of the alleys to the corners.

If you could speak into the microphone today, those are one of the major reasons reasons that we survive.

Um we have had, and and and I have to include Gail.

We have transformed systems I know over the last 42 years.

I think Gail is right behind me, okay?

So their relationships, strong relationships, right?

So you asking me how many people, I'm gonna tell you the same thing when Chancellor Reese said a hundred of hundreds of people call down here and say they are part of Parent Watch.

But it's only really historically has been a staff of five people, but we had a community resource network partnership that still exists where we have partners and relationships where I can call on different agencies, including the total family care to provide a service.

I have relationships with directors and city leaders because we did the system of care, so it's on and on.

When you ask me that question, that's how I'm trying to share with you how we can do this work.

Understood.

Well, thank you for that.

And then, Ms.

Avent, um, again, I think your testimony was pretty clear.

I don't know if I have many new questions because not only did you push back on new beds and expanding incarceration options, but you also uh gave like direct recommendations for where that funding could go, um, and it aligns to much of what we've already heard today.

So I just want to say thank you uh for your testimony, and then we're gonna move on uh to the next portion of today's um hearing.

Okay, thank you, Councilor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh it is now eleven twenty nine A.m.

I am going to recess for five minutes.

Um, and then I was hoping I could jump to another hearing, but it seems like they are not ready.

Uh, so we're gonna keep it moving.

But um, so it's eleven twenty-nine, we will resume at eleven thirty-four, uh, with the director and his team.

All right.

We will resume uh today's hearing.

Um and we are now moving to our government witness portion.

Uh we will first hear from uh the public defender service and uh testimony provided by Katarina Simonova.

And then following a line of questions here, we'll move to director a bit uh with the uh youth rehabilitation services.

Uh with that, Ms.

Simonova, you may begin your testimony.

Thank you.

Good morning.

I'm Caterina Seminova, Special Counsel for Policy and Legislation at the Public Defender Service.

With me today is Claire Krueger, an experienced attorney with PDS's juvenile services program.

Since it was started at the request of the council in 1982, JSP has been providing support and legal assistance to youth by staffing legal rights offices in the district's youth detention facilities.

Staff at JSP, including lawyers and law students, have daily interactions with youth and are able to help them with matters such as understanding their rights, filing grievances, and seeking help with matters that come up during the course of their detention.

Through these interactions and through post disposition representation, PDS sees firsthand that DYRS is failing at its essential mission of rehabilitating youth.

The agency fails to provide trauma-informed mental health care and programming, such as vocational training and reentry support that youth need to succeed in the community.

Rather than addressing these gaps in the needs of youth, this budget prioritizes construction and physically expanding a failing carceral program.

PDS urges the council to reject much of this budget and to focus DYRS on its core mission of rehabilitation.

The mayor's proposed budget includes a request for $29 million to expand housing capacity at New Beginnings and YSC.

This request aligns with a budget picture of cutting spending from communities and increasing spending on incarceration.

In addition to being counterproductive to rehabilitation and public safety, this budget request makes little sense.

By the time fiscal year 2027 begins, there will be only three months remaining in the current mayoral administration.

Even if DYRS worked on this goal for three months, the work would barely make a dent in the planning that is necessary for a construction project of this scope.

At the conclusion of the three months, a new mayoral administration would assume control of DYRS and would come with its own plan for the rehabilitation of youth.

New leadership at the mayor's office and a DYRS should be given the latitude to make budget proposals and implement a new vision rather than being saddled with a mandate from the outgoing administration.

Further, there's no critical need for additional secure bed detention space at YSC.

YSC has been mostly below capacity since mid-April, despite the fact that DYRS has made little progress in moving youth who are awaiting placement out of YSC.

At this time, approximately 18% of youth at YSC are in a waiting placement status.

If the new administration focuses on placing youth in appropriate rehabilitative settings, the daily population numbers would be driven down further.

Expanding bed space at YSC would only lead to more children spending more time in a setting that is not providing them with the care they need.

Similarly, at New Beginnings, Council should reject the proposal to expand bedspace when DYRS is not meeting the rehabilitative needs of the 57 youth it already has there.

New Beginnings offers committed youth a one-size-fits-all program that largely ignores the therapeutic recommendations made in court-ordered expert evaluations.

Many youth matriculate through the New Beginnings program slowly and with many setbacks without receiving the mental health treatment they need to successfully return to the community.

This is corroborated by what youth have shared with PDS staff and by the Office of Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight Report entitled Behavioral Services at New Beginnings, which provided a grim assessment of DYR's mental health services and rehabilitative model.

That report also found that 78% of released youth in 2023 had further involvement in the juvenile or criminal legal systems.

The council should also be particularly cautious about expanding bedspace given DYRS's continued failure to manage overtime spending.

Detained youth require staffing, and DYRS has not been able to hire qualified full-time employees to meet its staffing needs.

Instead, DYRS continues to spend excessively on overtime, costs that will only increase with this proposed expansion.

Rather than using scarce funds to detain more youth in facilities that fall far short of what youth need and what the district deserves, DYRS should dedicate resources to programming and rehabilitation.

We outlined specific programs and functions that DYRS should fund.

Mental health support.

PDS has repeatedly testified that district agencies, including DYRS, are failing to meet the mental health care needs of youth.

Court involved youth face myriad challenges that can include housing instability and homelessness, learning disabilities, commitment to CFSA, and a lack of educational and economic opportunities for themselves and their caregivers.

Nearly all court-involved youth in the district are black, and they shoulder also the race-based the burden of race-based disparities in health, as evidenced by a 15-year difference in life expectancy between Ward 8 and Ward 3 residents.

Court involved youth frequently have caregivers who have their own serious medical and mental health care problems.

In addition, nearly all court-involved youth have been exposed to violence and trauma.

To be clear, it is not that court-involved youth happen to face these challenges and have experiences of violence and trauma.

Rather, it is because youth face these challenges and have these experiences that they have become court involved.

DYRS is supposed to care for and rehabilitate court-involved youth who have these high needs and much potential, and DYRS has a substantial budget to do so, but the agency has little to show for it.

Youth continue to struggle because DYRS denies them meaningful mental health treatment.

At YSC, youth get no more than occasional brief check-ins with a therapist and medication management.

There is little by way of specialized therapy to address known trauma.

The picture is similarly bleak at New Beginnings.

The OIJ JFO report noted the deficits in DYRS's evaluations and implementation of care and concluded that, quote, DYRS must reinvest in comprehensive treatment resources, staff training, therapeutic programming that is more targeted and individualized to specific youth, and integrating family-based services to fulfill its mission.

A major part of this investment must be using the budget to fund outside providers to deliver specific services to youth.

DYRS must also enhance community-based services.

Youth who leave YSC after a judge orders release leave with no discharge planning beyond medication.

DYRS case management staff complete youth level of service and case plans for committed youth that are largely aspirational and recommend services that youth have no way of accessing.

Without appropriate support, youth cannot connect to services.

Even if youth have an intake appointment and are able to attend that appointment, they spend months waiting to start treatment.

Spending months in the community without needed support amounts to a failure of case management and planning, which is again not addressed in this budget or identified as a priority.

With respect to credible messengers, DYRS describes the credible messenger program as a mentoring service that transforms youth attitudes and behaviors around violence.

DYRS recognizes that credible messengers are able to connect with the most challenging youth because they have come from the same communities, face the same struggles, been involved in the criminal and juvenile legal systems, and have transformed their own lives.

Despite touting the impact of the program, DYRS would drastically cut it.

For youth, credible messengers are often among the few trusted adults in their lives.

Youth rely on credible messengers for transportation, job coaching, violence interruption, access to mental health care, educational and vocational services, and to help them generally with real world challenges.

Youth have described that credible messengers or trusted mentors are critical for rehabilitation and reentry, and many youth who are not committed and therefore do not have credible messengers, such as Title 16 youth and predisposition youth, beg for an assigned credible messenger.

Unfortunately, like mental health services, credible messengers are stretched too thin.

Young people often know what they need to succeed, and they have time and again stated that it is mentorship.

Rather than cutting back on credible messengers, DYRS should be committing more resources to this program.

With respect to job training and readiness, in order to foster meaningful change in the lives of young people, DYRS also needs to invest in career readiness and jobs training.

Youth need more than occasional summer jobs.

They need pathways to careers and sufficient income to support themselves.

While PDS appreciates the partnership with Carl's cars that has resumed over the last several months, youth need much more time in vocational programs and much more variety in programming.

Youth also need to learn interviewing skills, cooperation, and expectations in an employment setting.

Generally, DYRS does not even begin discharge planning until youth reach level six at New Beginnings, but that planning does not usually involve job readiness or connection.

While DYRS has a workforce development program in the community, youth are not connected to that community until they are home, which is too late to begin this part of re-entry, and many youth complain that the program is not helpful.

Again, nothing in this budget fixes the lack of a robust job readiness and job placement program.

In closing, youth who are detained at YSC and New Beginnings and those who are committed to DYRS urgently need care and rehabilitation, which requires appropriately tailored specific mental health services, quality mentorship, and real vocational opportunities.

Given that DYRS is already failing at its core mission of rehabilitation, this budget, with its proposed multi-year spending on jail beds, does nothing to advance the cause of rehabilitation through treatment.

District residents have an immense interest in having court-involved children get the care that they need from the local agency that is responsible for their rehabilitation.

This committee should reallocate funding so that the budget does what it is supposed to do, foster rehabilitation and success for district youth.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify, and we welcome your questions.

Thank you for your testimony.

In your testimony, you spoke to the ways in which uh the agency fails to provide trauma-informed care, and that is something we've heard from a number of witnesses today.

Um can you expound on what that might look like both inside of the agency but also in the community?

Sure, thank you, council member.

So I think inside of the agency, I'm thinking of two main things.

So if we're talking about inside of YSC or inside of New Beginnings, you do have mental health providers there who I assume do provide trauma-informed care, and that is great, and that is necessary.

But I think two significant things are missing.

So one is while we know, or at least DYS states that trauma-informed care is part of the YDR training.

I personally, who have witnessed YDRs work with young people day in and day out for the last decade and have talked to youth at YSC, know that that training isn't translating to how youth are treated.

And I'm not saying that YDRs aren't doing the best that they can do with what they have, but I do think that trauma-informed care needs to be incorporated on a much deeper level, both for training of YDRs, for continuing training for YDRs, but also in terms of the selection of YDRs, selecting people who may have a background in trauma-informed care.

Um so I think some of it has to do with just like basic facility staff who are working day in and day day out with the kids because being at YSE, we know all of those kids have trauma, and then being incarcerated itself causes a lot of trauma.

So the people who are face to face with these young people the most aren't the therapeutic staff, they are the YDRs.

And so ensuring that those YDRs both are selected from a pool of people who have the best background to be able to provide trauma-informed care, and then are provided with robust training to be able to provide that.

So I think that's one level.

I think it's the day-to-day staff.

But then I also think it goes a lot further than just the uh therapeutic staff that provide maybe the you know 15-minute check-ins at YSC or even the mental health providers who are on the units at YSC.

I think it goes deeper than that.

As we shared in our testimony, there needs to be more specific individualized therapeutic programming that focuses on trauma-informed care, but that could mean a variety of things.

Is that um someone who's doing CBT therapy?

Is that someone who is doing uh grief therapy specific to loss?

Is that someone who is doing uh therapy around witnessing violence, right?

And so I think being able to bring in outside mental health providers who have the specified training in very specific therapy that's tailored to the specific trauma of each child.

For example, a child who's experienced homelessness or housing instability might not have the same type of trauma as a child who has experienced abuse and neglect or who is experienced um violence in the community, and some of them have all of that trauma.

All that's to say is I think therapy on the therapeutic side of things needs to be trauma-informed, but in a much more specific and individualized way.

Yeah, no, that that point is well taken as uh the individualized therapeutics.

Uh I will say I did have a thought, like the agency is struggling to hire, is struggling to retain staff.

Um, while it's laudable to be thinking about trauma-informed folks, it seems as though the current hiring pool, let me say that, uh, is not one overflowing with trauma-informed individuals seeking employment at the agency.

And so we would have to be creative to build that type of pipeline over time.

Yeah, I completely agree.

I think creativity is key here, and I think that's actually what's lacking.

So I think creativity in terms of who we're bringing in, the pool that we're bringing in, and also how we're supporting the people who are brought in in terms of their own vicarious trauma that they're experiencing while working there.

Um I also think it's critical to talk about outside providers and contractors who can come into this facilities to provide that support both to the YDRs but also to the young people in terms of trauma-informed therapy.

Um and I and I want to say one other thing, I think all of this I'm talking about is very facility-based, but we are also talking about continuum continuums of care.

And we know that many young people are released into the community without the supports they need, and then re-engage, they were traumatized inside of the facility, and then they re-enter uh the trauma that they were already experienced experiencing prior to being incarcerated, and they are not um being able to access the necessary supports that they need and the trauma informed care that they need um in terms of community-based interventions.

And I'm talking about a variety of things.

I'm talking about therapeutic trauma informed care, but I'm talking about other pro social supports that can also help um resilience towards trauma.

Understood.

Um individualized plans, that came up several times today.

I know in a conversation with Mr.

Ferrer, he was saying uh for the young people he and uh his team work with, he hasn't really seen these individualized plans.

I know you and your testimony testimony, Miss Umenova said are these plans are largely aspirational and recommend services that you have no way of accessing.

In other words, is words on a paper, and it's not really in your experience, dictating what young people are receiving or navigating at the agency.

Where is the breakdown?

Like, what is the lever in your opinion to shift that?

That one, these plans are being created in the actual and in the actuality, what's in the plan is actually happening, if that makes sense.

Yes, sure.

Um so I will first just point out like Professor Ferrer, I um haven't seen an individualized rehabilitation plan specifically for a client who is um committed in December.

I still don't have that plan, and he's already in placement at this point, so that is something that is highly concerning.

For the plans that I've seen, they're very sparse and don't say a lot.

In terms of the YLS assessments that are supposed to dictate needs of young people, so it's a you know a risk-needs assessment, and so I think that's what my colleague was referring to.

Um those outline supports that a young person with those specific risk factors and those specific backgrounds and that specific need might need.

And I think the breakdown kind of goes along the continuum.

So if we're talking about a young person where the needs assessment is showing that they might have a higher level of needs that can only be treated inside of a inside of a secure facility, then the breakdown is what we've testified to.

It's that those needs aren't being addressed in a specific and individualized way at that facility, taking into consideration, we need to create the plans.

Yes.

And then making sure that there is like a more thoughtful uh individualized plan put into place for the young people in question.

Right.

So I do think it starts with creating a very specific and robust plan that is based on that specific child's individualized needs, um, documented diagnoses, trauma history, uh family involvement, all of that, educational attainment, vocational needs.

I I think so.

Those specific plans are a starting point.

But I guess what I'm also addressing is that in order for even if we have those plans, once those are created, that's critical.

But what's also critical is ensuring that those plans, those assessments, everything that's created prior to a young person coming into a facility are also hearkened back to throughout that child's time at the facility and upon discharge.

So I think there's a lack of follow through even when there is some sort of plan as well.

This came up earlier.

I was sharing that in a recent visit, I was able to witness like a check-in with a young person talking about them moving to the next level during their detention.

And I was struck by just how subjective it felt.

It wasn't to your point based on a plan, and here are the very concrete goals that you either met or didn't meet.

In fact, one of the reflections was, you know, your behavior has improved improved drastically, you haven't had any issues, you actually met all of our goals, but we actually think you're kind of shy and you're not talking as much as perhaps you should.

So we're not sure we're gonna move you to the next level.

Then when I asked, well, when might you revisit this?

It felt like, oh, maybe two weeks, maybe three or four.

Again, it just felt very subjective versus uh more structured process.

Can you speak to your experience with the agency and how young people are moving from level to level and how I'm told they receive a calendar with certain goals between this check-in and the next, how all of that plays out so that they are tracking their progress.

Ideally, they would have an individualized plan that would bleed into that, you know, progression model, but it doesn't seem without that plan that's happening.

So what is what are you seeing there?

So I can tell you what we're seeing just from being on site of the facility and talking to young people.

I will say that one thing that has been pretty difficult for us as advocates is to be able to actually access the documentation that shows kind of what goes on at each petition level.

Um we're not very welcomed into those uh petition meetings, and I don't say that to say that it's adversarial, I just say we often don't find out about them when we ask about them.

Um we often don't get a heads up of when they're gonna happen.

And so I I personally haven't been to a level petition for a long time.

Um I think when you say the word subjective, I think that's absolutely true.

Now I think DYRS might respond it's not actually subjective because there is a kind of a list of things that a child is supposed to be to accomplish, right?

And there's some points that they're supposed to achieve at each level in order to advance to the next level.

But the problem is achieving those points as you witnessed is based on a subjective and subjective understanding of whether or not you have uh succeeded in that way.

So I I do absolutely think it's subjective, and I do think there's there's two issues with that.

I think one being that each, as as was stated in previous testimony today, each specific child is going to need very, very different things in order to uh succeed in their treatment plan.

So moving on from level one to two for child one is going to look very different, should look very different.

It doesn't should look very different for what it looks like for child two to move on from level one to level two, right?

Because each of those child children should have very different goals based on their treatment needs, and that is not the case.

And so I think one main issue is that is the subjectivity you're talking about, but the kind of lack of individualized plan for each youth and the lack of individualized things that each child needs to meet in order to move on to the next level.

Um I think another huge issue is that it's honestly not super clear for the young people either when they're trying to move on to each level.

I think they understand basic concepts like I have to go to school, I have to participate in my therapy, I can't get into fights, right?

So like there's the basic compliance understanding that they have in order to move on to each level, but when you talk to a young person about why didn't you make your level, unless there's some real obvious thing, like I got into a big fight, they don't seem to understand the process itself either.

And I think I will say the team, they seemed earnest, they they talked to the young person.

I just was struck that something about the young person being shy would be used against them.

That seems like a personality trait.

100%.

Now I don't have all of the context there, but it is certainly something I'm interested in.

How do we more formalize that process for a young person moving level to level?

And that gets me to this next uh question.

You mentioned in your testimony that the discharge planning doesn't often happen until the very end of the process, starting at level six.

Um if you could just elaborate there, what you see, how does that process begin?

What would you when would it start in your recommendation?

And I imagine you're gonna say it should be connected to that rehabilitation plan that was started at the very beginning.

You're exactly right.

And I would also hope that it was connected to what's required under the Road Act, which is that discharge planning is supposed to begin after 60 days of child's entry into uh a secure placement.

So hypothetically, if that was at new beginnings, that child would probably be on level one or two at that point.

So that is much earlier than what's actually happening.

In fact, best practices say that discharge planning happens the second a child enters the door of a residential facility.

And so I think level six is much later because that is when a child has already been there for at least eight or nine months.

Um what I will say discharge planning looks like from my experience is that um sometimes kids get a uh discharge.

What I've seen more often is that kids get a discharge TDM on level six.

Some young people have to wait for that until they even reach home petition, which as you know is more like the level seven.

Um, and so that's at the very, very end of their time there.

And I see a few a variety of issues with that.

One, if that's the first time that we're talking about connecting that young person to vocational opportunities to educational opportunities, to mental health opportunities, then you only have what a month to make sure that all of those things are in place.

And what that usually looks like is that a kid exits that facility with some of those things not in place.

So I think that's one issue is things aren't in place for the young person when they step outside of the door.

When a child steps outside of New Beginnings, they should be wrapped in a blanket of supports that already exist and that they're already familiar with.

And so that gets to my second point.

It's not only that not everything is set up in time, it's that that child hasn't had time to integrate into some of those re-entry services that they're going to hopefully participate in.

So, for example, on level four, if a child is doing really well, maybe a credible messenger could take them on some job interviews, or maybe a credible messenger could take them to get their ID earlier on, or maybe uh they could go on a tour of a school that they're interested in, or maybe they could go do some volunteer work somewhere to find out kind of what they're interested in.

Because one thing that was very specifically noted in the um OIJFFO's report um on behavioral health assessments was this idea that best practice for young people re-entering or anyone re-entering is ensuring that they access community-based things or environmental, they access the environment they're going to be stepping into well before they step into it.

Otherwise, it's like a shock.

So many kids walk out of New Beginnings and they're like, oh my goodness, like the community, I'm free.

I you know, and it just it doesn't reintegrate them in the best way, but also they're not wrapped in the services they need, and they're not familiar with those services.

So I think re-entry planning, it's not only that it should be done earlier because we need things to be done in a timely way, but it's also so that that young person becomes integrated into those services earlier.

And to that point, there was value spoken about the credible messengers.

I know I know not all credible messengers are created equally, but generally speaking, value for the credible messenger program that's been reduced significantly in this year's budget.

How have you seen that program work at its best in supporting both the transition but the supports that a young person needs?

Uh I cannot speak high of the the credible messengers.

I know many of them well and personally, and I cannot speak more highly of them in terms of the support that they provide to young people and to their families.

So I think it's both.

I think when young people are at the facilities, I think it's critical to be engaging with a mentor and someone who has that lived experience and you know, keep your head up and uh stay the course and you know, kind of help uplifting young people who might feel very traumatized and frustrated and um you know having a hard time at the facility.

So I think in terms of that facility work, that's just critical.

And I think there are credible messengers on site at facilities, but I just do want to put in a plug for the fact that having your own personal credible messenger is very different than being in a group with a credible messenger.

And so I think every young person who's incarcerated, Title 16 kids, secured attention kids could benefit from that.

And that's only to underscore how much more money could go into that program to provide more of them for young people who are incarcerated.

In terms of young people in the community, I have seen credible messengers literally be the game changers in terms of a young people putting down a gun in terms of a young person getting a job because they would have had no other way to maybe get a nice suit for a job, or to get driven to a job interview, or to have job interviews support.

And you know, DYS does have workforce development in the community, and and I applaud them for that.

I think that that could be a lot more robust, but I do think credible messengers provide a lot of these game changing supports, even in terms of transportation.

A kid doesn't feel safe to take the bus.

A credible messenger helps get them to school.

That makes the difference between a child going to school or not going to school, and I don't have to tell you how much school engagement is critical to uh rehabilitation.

But then I think that there's even more.

I think that there's the support that the family can get from a credible messenger.

And so I while I think that every child could have a credible messenger, I also think a family engagement specialist or a credible messenger type person who works with a family who really is there to support kind of the interfamilial challenges that occur when a young person comes back home and to be able to navigate those things with families because they too have experience of re-entering and having to um re-engage with family.

Um, and so I think it's both critical for the child, but I think it's critical for family structures that one just need that support and guidance, but also could really use someone who is helping access mental health supports, even if it's just through transportation, accessing school, accessing uh jobs.

So I I just I think it's critical.

That's something I mean, the cut was pretty significant, but that is something we're certainly looking at.

Um a few other questions.

One, there was a uh decline in population numbers, notably at YSC.

Um I plan to ask the director about this, but from your perspective, what are some of the factors that you believe contributed to that?

I uh looking at the numbers, um, I just took a quick peek at the numbers more recently, specifically over the last couple of months, and I I do think it it I don't have the data the data on um arrests and papering charges in front of me, so I don't want to speak to something I don't know about.

But what I will say is I don't think it's a significant drop in the awaiting placement population, and why I say that is because um I know that you mentioned the median number, but uh the data shows that over the last two months the average number of kids was um uh still about 20% of the population, with a lot of those kids stay being there with all of those kids actually over the last two months being there over 75 days, and some of them even over a hundred days.

So I still think that length of stay and the percentage of the population, even if the whole percentage of YSC has gone down, is still highly contributing to the amount of young people there.

And of course, all of that is to say that I think it has to be something else that's lessening.

So it is and the other population there is the secured attention.

I think it has gone down somewhat.

Um, and you know, you know, it's not it's no longer 41 kids or 30 kids at YSE who are awaiting placement, it's now down to um, you know, around 20 kids.

But again, that's still 20% of the population at YSE.

Yeah, I mean, there's still clearly work to do, but I do want to just acknowledge where the team is making progress.

Yes.

Um what I'm hearing you say is you think it may be even something else.

And so do you have a sense of what that might be?

I don't.

And it's fine if not, I'm gonna ask the director.

I think he might say, here are the strategies we've implemented to drive down waiting placement and other things, but just wanted your perspective there.

Um, what kind of recreational programming should we be advocating for both at YSC and new beginnings?

I know there's some challenges at YC just sheerly in terms of space, but I know the last time I was at YSC, I heard about new programming, new athletic partnerships, et cetera.

Are you seeing those online and or what additional programming should young people have access to?

Um I haven't personally seen, I I know I was with you when we heard about those programs.

I have not personally seen them in place yet.

Um I haven't been at YSC this past week, so I or even last week.

So I I don't want to say that they're not online, but I haven't personally seen um any of those programs online yet.

Um so the main thing I would say is while I think a robust number of recreational programs is critical to address all types of interests and all types of strengths.

What I hear the most, and I and I think what you may have heard too from young people is vocational training programs.

Um and I think they need to be vocational training programs that really translate to things that youth can do in the community.

So, you know, not a two-week long, let me go down to the culinary unit and like stand with the chefs and you know work in there for a little bit, but something that really they can take with them, some sort of certificate or um uh a certificate of achievement or recommendation from the person that they worked with, something they can really put on their resume in order to transition and use that once they go into the community.

So things that I've heard about, and again, we'd have to be re really creative with this, but there's a lot of young people who are really interested in HVAC and plumbing, and I haven't seen that um as something that's uh at YSC or New Beginnings.

Again, I think we'd be have to be creative about how that's done in a carceral setting, but I think more vocational recreational programs are are very critical, um, given what the young people have stated.

Okay.

Uh last couple questions.

Uh confinement practices.

That's another area of progress that I anticipate hearing from the director.

What are you seeing in terms of confinement practices throughout the agency?

So I haven't seen, I do I I did understand that there was a period of lockdown at the facility recently, um, which means that kids are going to that inevitably meant means that kids are in confinement for a significant period of time.

I I would like to applaud DYRS.

I love that kids are no longer in confinement during shift change.

I think that that means that they are outside of their room for the entire day as long as things are being done properly, which I think is hugely significant.

And I know from young people that they really like that because during shift change, a lot of times kids were kept in longer than necessary.

So I think that's an amazing thing that DYRS has done is to keep them out.

I understand that uh creates hardships sometimes for YDRs, but I will say that one thing I would like to point out about confinement, or two things that we've noticed is that there does still seem to be an issue with confinement on the intake unit.

So for young people who for some reason can't be placed in uh regular programming, maybe because of safety concerns, or for a young person who maybe is a pins youth, there's various things going on on intake that violate the uh the You're talking about the young people that are in essentially in the holding sills.

Right.

So in intake, as you've seen, I think it's a lot harder for young people to be out on the floor um for significant periods of time if there's other people in intake and so we have seen significant issues with cell confinement in intake and even when the facility is under capacity while there's less need for intake it is still being used um for a variety of reasons so those young people are spending significant amounts of times in their cell um which amounts to as you know a lack of education a lack of programming a lack of gym time a lack of maze time and so I do still see a lot of confinement issues there and then the other um other issue that sometimes comes up is um while as you know the law requires that confinement is used as for as brief a possible as time and only for non-putative reasons I think that there's this understanding of the law well if it's if it's for less than an hour if if I keep them in there for less than an hour then it doesn't trigger all the other parts of the law that are required right at an hour a mental health person has to come check in.

And so what we have seen sometimes is young people who are going on what staff call a cool out because maybe they did just get into an incident and staff maybe rightfully so feel that a cool out is necessary but then we just need to see assurances that that young person is coming out the second that they are calm and no longer a safety threat and I have not seen that.

And so we do see young people confined in their cells for periods of time after um when it's supposed to just be like a cool out and then that does border on putative confinement.

Got it.

Parent engagement and then independent oversight uh let's start with parent engagement what trends are you seeing with your clients in terms of their access to family andor parents.

Um I think we've shared this with you before I would say almost every 100% of the young people I talk to say that they are not able to speak to their families on the phone enough while they're incarcerated.

So at YSC for example kids get two 15 minute phone calls a week which as you know for a young person that if their parent isn't visiting them at the facility that might be their only parent engagement.

In terms of I think parent engagement for family therapy sessions, I can speak to my clients specifically I haven't really seen a lot of that happen.

I have a lot of my clients' parents telling me that they feel that they don't get as many updates as they want to about their child's progress at facilities or in various programming and that they are not included in any sort of family therapy.

I will say that I will say for DYRS that the recent TDMs that I've been to that the uh staff have done have tried really hard to get the parent at least on the phone.

So I have seen that which I'm grateful for I think would be one you would acknowledge that's a shift.

I would acknowledge that's an improvement from the past TDMs I've seen although I I do know that there are parents that would like to come in person to the TDM and I think maybe can't get transportation there.

So I think there could be improvements in terms of bringing parents into the facilities.

And that it could be a lot more and I will also say that I think rather than it being a top-down approach where uh every every young person is getting the same amount of access to their family or that parent family is um engaged in the child's treatment in the same way I think sometimes it is really caseworker dependent so I feel like I have clients whose caseworker is very in touch with the parent includes them in a lot of things and then I have families who say they've never heard from the caseworker so that's also definitely a challenge is sometimes it's a heard earlier if you have someone advocating for you you're gonna look up in ways that maybe others want to okay, and then last question here is about the independent oversight.

We've heard that testimony a lot.

Um, and where there might be needed areas of focus should there be independent oversight re-established.

Um, where where are you asking where you believe there should be the focus from an independent oversight body?

Oh, definitely back inside of both New Beginnings and and YSC, I think specifically to um uh population, you know, population trends, but to critical incidents, to things that the oversight body already did, like fire safety to, but even more significantly to things like uh programmatic offerings and the uh efficacy of the mental health and behavioral health supports there.

I think that is all really critical inside of those facilities.

Um, and then I think uh also in terms of uh the other places that DYS contracts with.

So we have so many young people that we talk a lot less about who are in youth shelter homes and who are in group homes, and those are forms of uh of detention, right?

They're a lesser form, but that those are still kids who are in detention who should be accessing um quality care and treatment in those facilities.

And then I also think that um, you know, this we might have to be more creative with this, but I think um in terms of uh the provision of services to the young people in the community and some way of like oversight over um the coordination of those services and access to those services is really critical because as people talk about here, we have a lot of resources, but we're very coordination poor.

So, what's the lever that's gonna be able to get us to make sure that every child who is in DYRS custody, and I and I I mean custody, like they're committed, but they're at home, is accessing the services that they should be able to access um by being committed to DYRS.

Awesome.

Was there anything you wanted to share or talk about that we didn't cover?

I think I just wanted to underscore in my testimony that I know we talked a lot I talked a lot about facilities, and I and and as my colleague said, we very much um believe that the funding should go into making community-based programming and what already exists in the facilities better and more robust and not adding more to those facilities.

I hear you loud and clear.

Uh well, thank you for your testimony.

Thank you so much.

Next, we will have Director Sam a bit of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

I imagine you may be joined by members of your team as well.

Before you take your seat, uh, I have to swear you in.

And the last time I got in trouble because I didn't read the right the specific words.

Yeah, yeah, please, please, please.

But not to hold up to it.

Understood.

Um, if you could raise your right hand.

All right.

Uh it is practice of this committee to place our government witnesses under oath per the council's rules.

Uh, do you swear or affirm under penalty or perjury that the testimony you are about to provide to the committee on youth affairs is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Um, and then director, you may uh give your testimony.

But before you begin, I just want to publicly uh acknowledge that uh there is a lot of work still left to do at DRS, uh, but there are numerous areas of improvement, and we've heard and talked about some of that today.

And so I want to thank you for your partnership.

I want to acknowledge the progress because I know sometimes when it's all negative, it may seem like we're mopping the ocean, uh, but it is not lost on us the work that you and your team have contributed to that's showing signs of hope.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, uh, or Chairperson Parker, and I really appreciate that acknowledgement, and it does mean a lot uh not just to me, but to my team and the team that's watching uh online.

So uh very much appreciated.

Um good afternoon, uh Chairperson Parker, members of the committee on youth Affairs, and community members.

Uh I'm Sam Abbott, Director of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today about DYRS's fiscal year 27 budget.

I'm accompanied by members of my executive team and the agency's financial team from the office of the chief financial officer who is joining us online, and they are ready to answer any specific budget questions when needed.

I want to express my ongoing gratitude to Mayor Bowser and Deputy Mayor APIA for their consistent leadership as the mayor remains focused on keeping public safety a top priority in this challenging fiscal landscape.

The fiscal 27 budget prioritizes prioritizes increased funding for public safety and economic growth in the district.

The GROW DC proposed budget builds on the momentum of decreasing crime citywide by ensuring that DYRS and other core agencies in our public safety ecosystem have the resources they need.

Mayor Bowser's proposed fiscal 27 budget, Grow DC, was formulated with three key considerations in mind.

How to drive growth in our economy, to fund the services and programs residents count on, how to keep families in DC and attract new residents, and how to create a business environment that draws new investment and creates new jobs.

We are navigating a pivotal moment that demands a more deliberate approach to growth.

The federal dollars that once expanded our programs in unprecedented ways have been exhausted, and the federal workforce reductions have introduced new pressures on our economy and commercial corridors.

That being said, it's important to be clear DC is still growing.

Revenues have slowed, but the city maintains a strong financial foundation on which we can build by making the kinds of strategic and targeted decisions that will allow DC to continue growing while delivering the high quality services our residents depend on.

During our recent performance oversight hearing, I outlined several of the agency's priorities and the progress that we have made in strengthening operations, improving safety, deepening partnerships, enhancing prevention efforts, and advancing innovative approaches to youth rehabilitation.

Today I'm pleased to expand on those updates and describe how DYRS will continue to make meaningful progress in fiscal 27 by strategically utilizing the resources proposed in this budget to meet the needs of the youth in our care.

To date, in fiscal 26, DYRS has invested more than 8.2 million dollars in community-based residential programs across our continuum of care.

This investment increased capacity with a local shelter provider and increased the capacity of beds at an out of state residential treatment program.

Currently, we are in the solicitation process to further expand our portfolio of residential treatment centers, especially those able to address the acute and highly specialized needs of some of our youth.

The investments in expanding our continuum of care as well as our continued focus on improving the efficiency of our placement process have resulted in faster placements for committed youth.

Since our performance oversight hearing, the number of days youth await placement has continued to decline, with the most recent data showing an average length of stay of 29 days.

We still have outliers that take significantly longer to place, and we will continue to focus on continued improvement.

However, this is a significant milestone.

The team effort from procurement, the pre-commitment team, the placement team, care coordination, and external partners, including our providers, other district agencies, and the mayor's support has contributed to this overall success.

The mayor's fiscal 27 budget allows DYRS to continue meeting young people where they are.

It invests in youth engagement initiatives designed to increase participation among committed youth and strengthen pathways towards skill development and long-term economic stability.

One example is our new construction training program, which provides 12 weeks of hands-on instruction in carpentry, plumbing fundamentals, blueprint reading, construction math, and tool safety.

Through this initiative, youth at New Beginnings who have completed high school or earned their GED build state-of-the-art tiny houses in partnership with our facilities management team.

Graduates of this training will receive an OSHA 10 job site safety certification as well as a CFC HVAC certification, which is a requirement for technicians to service equipment with refrigerants.

The young people in the photographs that I provided, you uh are the participants in that program.

These youth also participate in an internship at the OASIS campus through a collaboration with the C4 Foundation, where they develop additional carpentry skills under the guidance of a certified carpenter.

This structured project-based training builds confidence, teamwork, and problem-solving skills while opening tangible pathways to apprenticeships, advanced trades, and long-term employment in the construction industry.

Good morning, Chair, Councilmember Bonds.

Good to see you.

The fiscal 27 budget sustains several of our innovative programs designed to create environments that feel home-like, supportive, and developmentally appropriate.

DYRS is partnering with DC United to connect accredited major league soccer level coaches with our youth.

Through an MOU with the Twinning Project, an internationally recognized initiative connecting professional sports clubs with incarcerated individuals.

Our youth will participate in a structured educational program focused on coaching and mentorship.

The goal is to build discipline, strengthen communication and leadership skills, and prepare young people for potential employment opportunities after their commitment ends.

This initiative will begin in late July as a pilot program for our Title 16 youth at YSC.

We are also excited about the partnership facilitated by Council Member Pinto, which introduced us to uh introduced us to a group of local pickleball coaches who will volunteer at YSC.

They are eager to teach the sport and engage our young people in positive, enriching ways.

These types of community-based partnerships are meaningful and part of our broader strategy to strengthen youth engagement, belonging, and wellness.

DYRS also launched a family engagement initiative this year by designating a dedicated family engagement coordinator.

This coordinator has been engaging with internal staff and external stakeholders to develop an agency-wide strategy to strengthen engagement with families of our youth who are vital partners in the rehabilitation process.

Additionally, Parent Watch and the Elders Council are serving as subject matter experts, offering essential guidance as we expand this work.

The mayor's fiscal 27 Grow DC budget further supports DYRS's operations by providing the resources necessary to sustain the progress we have made in alignment with Mayor Bowser's vision for public safety.

In fiscal 26, we focused on strengthening safety and security, addressing staffing challenges, and modernizing our internal infrastructure to better serve our youth.

These efforts included significant IT modernization and capital improvements.

With the fiscal 27 budget, DYRS will continue these efforts with an investment of over $2 million to enhance technological compatibility, update IT equipment used by our medical unit, and upgrade key databases to improve reporting accuracy and efficiency.

We're also upgrading our radio infrastructure at new beginnings and evaluating options to integrate our portable radios into the district citywide radio system to improve safety and communication reliability.

Ongoing capital projects will continue in Fiscal 27, including critical HVAC repairs, the development of more functional and therapeutic outdoor courtyard spaces, and the installation of additional security enhancements to improve safety and efficiency within our intake unit and May's area.

These infrastructure investments are essential for creating safe, healthy, and supportive environments where youth can heal, learn, and grow.

Lastly, the fiscal 27 budget includes 46 million dollars for capital improvements at YSC and New Beginnings.

These funds will help DYRS relieve population pressures at YSC by adding housing units and expanding space at both sites.

I look forward to working closely with council and our community partners to determine how these enhancements can best serve our youth and reduce our reliance on out-of-state placements.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify.

I appreciate Mayor Bowser's ongoing investments in DYRS, which demonstrate her commitment to youth accountability and community safety while providing young people in the District of Columbia with robust rehabilitation services, right opportunities, and a specialized care they need to thrive.

I welcome your questions and look forward to today's discussion.

Thank you, Director.

Before jumping in and we'll have 10 minute rounds, I do want to acknowledge that we've been joined by my at-large colleague Anita Bonds, and I appreciate your consistent engagement with DYRS.

She said to me offline that we have to get these young people together, and I think her presence here is important, so thank you.

I wanted to follow up on the capital funds that were included in the budget.

We heard from a number of folk today that say we shouldn't be using these dollars to expand bids, and instead we should use that money elsewhere or find money to invest in programming and preventative services.

How many beds in total will these capital budget projects create?

And can you provide context for the decision to expand Bay It's New Beginnings and YSC in the budget?

Absolutely.

So the contemplated beds are one additional, I believe 10 bed unit is what we can fit at YSC and three additional units, each 10 beds at New Beginnings.

So it would be 40 total beds across the system, but they would be split 10 and 30.

The idea behind this number one is we have had a an issue with uh overcrowding at YSC in particular.

And we also have population compatibility issues, I'll say.

So we have young people that have community beefs that come in that we have to keep separated.

Um we have people that that uh create uh conflicts or have conflicts while they're with us and need to be separated, and having addition any additional space will help in terms of population management at YSC.

Looking over to New Beginnings, first I'll just say we haven't decided as an agency, like what should we do with these beds, but we have considered a number of options, and as I mentioned in my remarks, I want to work with council and with our communities to understand uh what the best approach is.

Um the the ideas that we have been discussing and that I think are relevant are to look at uh new beginnings, uh additional space.

Uh one option would be to look at them for the Title 16 youth.

I know in the past we have had Title 16 youth at um new beginnings.

Um we have prioritized getting those using those beds for placements, having additional space uh may allow us to move that population over there and uh create some unique programming for them.

There would still be some challenges with that in terms of uh how we do uh education because of the restrictions that we have imposed on Title 16 youth, they can't be mixed with the other youth, so we would have to look at how we do that uh to ensure that we do good education programming, but the upside is they would have access to some of the vocational programming that we're doing out on that campus, whether it be at New Beginnings or at OASIS, uh and so that is one option that I think is compelling.

Uh another option that we have considered is the need for enhanced uh mental health space.

And uh I know that there has been tremendous uh lengthy conversations about um the need for a dedicated PRTF program.

I don't know that it is feasible to do uh an actual PRTF at the New Beginnings campus, um, but I do think it would be feasible to have uh some higher level of mental health programming.

And um I have had uh some initial discussions with uh Dr.

Bennett at the health department and Dr.

Basron at DBH in terms of how could that look like, what kind of regulatory structure, and I I do think there is a lot more uh work that we would need to look at uh in terms of you know whether that needs to be regulated like as a hospital, or is there some sort of intermediate level that we could look at?

How would we staff it?

Would it be operated by DBH or operated by DYRS?

But that's a population that we certainly have a need for and would be uh a potential use for the space.

And then I'm open to any suggestions to see what could we best utilize that space for.

I think it's interesting to talk about.

It's interesting you talk about uh establishing a PRTF.

Uh that's exactly what my team and I discuss.

Like this is a need now.

Now I know there's some advocates there that would say, no, we don't even want that.

Uh but I do think uh for severe uh traumatic instances and young people with severe psychiatric needs.

Uh there is currently not a facility that is meeting their needs as it relates to DRS.

Um, so we will look more at that.

One question I had as it relates to YSC, where might there be space to build an extra wing or unit?

Yeah, it's it's it's hard to imagine.

Yes.

So um I know you've been there, so I'm gonna sort of walk you through in in our minds eyes.

Um, if you are um standing in the maze, right, and looking back towards where central control is.

Um to the right of that area, there is a uh another outdoor space that is uh on the non-secure side of the facility, and so it would be and that is not the recreational space.

That is not part of the recreational space.

It is because it's on the non-secure side, we do not use it for the detained youth, but it there is some space out there, and we have worked with DGS to evaluate you know how would we actually construct something while we're continuing to operate because we would need to continue to operate, and they are confident that we could move materials and operate at the same time.

And if you'd like to visit and and kind of walk through that space, uh it probably would be easiest to describe, you know.

And do you have a a spec of how much something like that at YSC might cost versus uh new beginnings?

Because uh we see the capital dollars, but how are you imagining dividing up those capital dollars?

In other words, if we have 48 million dollars, are you thinking that's half and half or might the YSC development cost?

For YSC development, it was nine million dollars estimated by DGS.

Nine million, and that would allow you in that courtyard space to build an additional unit of 10 bits, and then I'm imagining the remainder would be for the new beginnings site.

Twenty twenty million.

Okay, the twenty million would be for the new beginnings, understood.

Do you all have an estimate of operating costs that might be associated with uh this additional space?

And so the point is, well, taken we heard that earlier today that you know you create more bits, hypothetically you are looking to feel them, which means you need more YDRs, you need more staff, personnel services, and programming.

What are the operating costs associated with this additional capacity?

Do you have an estimate?

Okay, I didn't think so.

Um, yeah, we we would have to evaluate that, but um looking at how we staff a unit, we would have uh, if you look at YSC, that's a 24-hour unit.

Uh we would need two staff uh to supervise youth on that unit.

Um, and you know, when you run 24 hours a day, um each of those posts um would account to about five positions, five people, right?

Because you're you've got to change shifts.

Understood.

So it would be uh somewhat over maybe 10 or 11 FTEs to man that position or man that unit.

Uh same for the the three additional units, but we'd have to look a little bit deeper in terms of um you know ancillary costs for things like food service for behavioral health or um uh that type of expansion.

And and it would depend largely I think on what kind of programming we're doing, uh, how that works.

And if you had to prioritize uh between added capacity at YC or an added capacity at New Beginning what might you say is the bigger priority?

I mean that's sort of like do you want your left or your right arm but um if you write what you're right you might say anymore.

So I think that the space at New Beginnings would have a a significant impact on the population at YSC.

So you would say new beginnings capacity there is probably more worthwhile.

Yes.

And then last question here that I'm gonna have time for in this round before turning to my colleague is it your understanding that this investment was an attempt by the executive to deal with overcrowding or is this added capacity for another purpose put differently is this like the answer to the overcrowding that we've been talking about for the year or are these bids because as you said like you just realized it might allow you to move Title 16 or other strategic choices.

Well it's really to address overcrowding I mean it as we look at how do we address that at YSC that's why we looked at that Title 16 population they take up you know basically two living units and they stay for a very long period of time.

So moving those kids out would significantly uh reduce the stress and pressure at YSC.

Likewise when we look at kids that are awaiting um PRTF level placements they tend to take a lot longer so they have a longer length of stay so having that program available um could significantly reduce length of stay uh again at YSC.

Thank you.

I'm gonna turn to my colleague council member Bonds.

Well thank you very much um council member you're my council member so I'm here to support you I'm a ward five resident and I'm here also to support all that we're doing to address this population.

As you were talking with um the director um chairman I was thinking are we at a point where we're finally acknowledging that we need an alternative educational process for some of our young people and um and I know don't get don't kill me yet because what I'm really wondering about is when we I and I listened to um the previous testimony from the public defender service I listened intensely thank you very much I understood much of what you said and it it bears on me.

And what bears on me is this issue that we have talked about since COVID um and it's become more apparent since COVID every year and that's this trauma informed care and and how are we really managing that not just in your institution but in our schools and my colleague may not like this when we talk about curfew and we talk about the takeovers the gatherings how are we really managing that because there are young people who have created their own world and we we we're trying hard to chisel our way in but they have created their own world and unfortunately many of them end up in your care and so I just really want to to understand are we being real are we just going to continue to say we've got to have you know more staff, um, as um the public defender service says we need to be more intentional, more impactful with the services we already provide what w what are we really doing?

What how do you see the horizon?

You've been there now for long enough to have done an evaluation of where we really are.

And be honest, because I think we're at a point we got to be honest.

It's not getting any better.

200 is the number, comes and goes, 200 is the number, and then it it expands.

I understand from the um security system that you have there with uh the workers that they see more of the young people coming to the table with um trauma, uh, mental health, real needs.

Um and we if we're going to address the young people that I'll say congregate in your facility, how we really going to are we gonna accept that we got a problem and let's do something about it, and let's do something about it now while we can before we become the planet of the apes.

So um a lot of topics there.

So I'm gonna try to uh unpack this, uh, Council Member Bonds, and I I appreciate your your your passion.

And I agree that that there are many, many things that we can do before a young person reaches detention or even uh any kind of um contact with the police from the hearing that uh council member Parker uh had, or I should say round table that you you had, um I heard the young people um talking about having um safe spaces that they wanted to gather, they wanted to do things, and so I think that there certainly is work that we could do as a city to provide them those opportunities with appropriate levels of supervision, and I think that's probably what's been you know missing when it's uh sort of done organically by social media in an open space, it can become uh a bit of a management problem.

Um, and it's it's generally a few young people that are engaging in behaviors that are that are unacceptable, and uh I heard very clearly how how unfair our young people feel about having the whole thing shut down because uh of a few bad actors.

And so I think when we look at how do you how do you manage that uh there has to be some sort of uh space, sort of definition of what that space is.

Um, you know, when you look at like a DPR event, kids sign up, they come out there, there are a lot of adult supervision, uh recruiting parents to come out there and be engaged with them.

When you see these activities happening um and you have enough of the the uh responsible adults in the community, they intervene early when they see kids horsing around that you know is is you know sort of normal behavior, but you can see where that would lead to something, and and you can intervene at that point.

So I think providing those those opportunities in the community is important.

I think we also need to look at structural things that we can do uh in the juvenile justice system to uh be an off-ramp to formal processing, and you know, one thing that Dr.

Basron has stood up, and I'm I'm very happy uh that she's done this, is uh she is she is engaged in multi-systemic therapy, and we have a provider now that can uh uh accept or at least will be able to accept young people into MST services.

And when they reached out to me to say, hey, we're gonna be able to start working with kids.

My first thought was uh let me call Dr.

Woodland over at CSSD, because something like MST is a great community-based intervention that could be used, uh, and it could be paired with probation, but the the intervention itself is intensive in-home family therapy, and so we need to use that resource, and of course, you know, DYRS could use that, but if kids are committed to us, then they're sort of using it on the back end.

We could also use it, and I I would encourage our attorney general to consider using those MST services and developing continuums as a diversion as an alternative to system involvement all together.

Excuse me, please, but what is MST?

Multisystemic therapy, it's an evidence-based practice.

It has uh when I say evidence-based, there is um uh literature supporting and it's it's reached a standard that it's uh it's got uh high levels of credibility.

And is there something that um we the government needs to do so that you can this service, this particular therapy can be used?

Yes, yes.

You need a law?

No, we don't need a law.

No, we don't need a law, but we just need um people to use that service.

So, how do we get them to use this service?

Um like I said, uh I think we should encourage um that the attorney general consider using it as a diversion option.

Um he has divor diversion authority.

Uh this is a great resource to divert young people that are having family issues, and if those family issues are driving their delinquent behavior, this is the opportunity to move them into that kind of service, a very specific service, uh, and and not get engaged into the criminal justice system.

Okay, likewise.

So you're you're you're you're actually informing me that as far as your facility, you do not see it necessarily becoming a uh alternative educational facility, because we're required to continue to educate our young people, no matter where they are until they reach a certain age.

So I'm trying I'm trying to understand how you see your facility fitting into the grand scheme of things as a young person has um exhibited concerns about how they're growing up through their behavior, and what can we government as a part of the community, hopefully with their parents, really how do we impact them?

And so when they get to you, we understand there is perhaps a major issue of flare up that we're responding to.

So I'm trying to understand what would what can what can you do as it relates to helping them to get on the better path of life.

Well, I think that's that if you're getting to the programming that we use, absolutely.

There are things that that we are doing just to wrap up the conversation of MST, I do plan to use that service uh for committed kids.

Um we do get some committed youth that are uh I would say on the lower end of uh community safety, right?

They're not a big community safety concern, they just perhaps had multiple involvements or been difficult on probation.

I think that that's a great option for those kids.

We can go directly into that home-based service.

Um we can also use it after a young person has completed a program as a support when they come back into the community.

Uh in terms of of what we're doing, you know, there's been a lot of conversation about trauma-informed uh trauma-informed care, but really training around our staff and the and the type of staff that we have.

Um, and we we've engaged with uh a professional, Dr.

Joan Galise, to help train our staff in trauma informed care, and she is uh a member of probably the longest acronym, but it's like the National Association of State Mental Health Providers, um, Nash NASHPID.

Um is somebody that was referred to us by our partners at Disability Rights DC.

Um she is engaged with us.

Um we are expanding our programming.

I spoke a little bit about the programming that we're doing.

Yeah, these are these are all things, but everything is interconnected in terms of what's happening in the community.

Uh so yes, we need to do our part, but it's a sort of system-wide effort that we need to see if we're going to be successful.

Thank you very much.

I know I'm over my time, way over my time.

Thank you for that.

You're good.

There are more rounds if you want to stick with us.

I wanted to turn to overtime.

In the fiscal year 27 budget, the executive allocated 13.8 million in overtime allotments for DRS youth and family programs representing a staggering $8.8 million increase from last year.

Um can you generally speak to this?

And I have some follow-up questions.

Like why the need for such a large increase in overtime.

So the overtime that we have been budgeted for historically has been far short of what our utilization has been.

And so we have been using uh supplemental funds or contingency funds in the past to make up for that difference.

Uh I believe that, you know, we have our uh OCFO uh member here, but I think that there was uh a concerted effort among at least I'll just speak for DYRS to uh fund our overtime in line with uh the actual numbers, what our actual utilization is.

Now that said, it I think it's it's higher than what our utilization has shown.

And um I think that this is very much related to the conversation about credible messengers, and I'll I'll let Dr.

Baxter speak in just a moment.

But um uh we have um requested that uh we take the uh the over shot of that overtime budget.

We believe that 11 million dollars is the actual number that we would need and use that to fund the credible messenger services that were reduced.

That is helpful.

And where was the over uh time payment for last fiscal year or yeah, for last fiscal year, and where are we to date if you have that number?

Uh where were you in actuals for fiscal year twenty-five and where are you today with fiscal year twenty-six?

2024 and 25.

And where are you?

And I think we anticipate, you know, it could be above 10 million um for 2020 six, and you know, being that um there may be increasing youth we try to project out.

So I think probably 11 million, maybe sufficient based upon what I see based on 26 needs.

But you know, if anything's changes in 27, you know, you never know.

But I I I would agree with uh Director Sam that 11 million seems more within the alliance of what the agency needs.

And what is driving that increase from 25 to 26?

So even based on those estimates, you're looking at 8.4 million and 25 to 11 million and 26.

What's driving the increase in overtime?

So uh what drives our overtime, um, obviously we've we've seen increases in the number of kids that we've had um steadily over the last couple of years, um, but what really drives our overtime are um staff that are unavailable to work, um which I believe we are at um I'm gonna realize it, 50 or 60.

60 staff that are uh unavailable to work, and that could include people that are out for injuries or for other reasons.

Um and another big factor is the intermittent use of uh PFL or um FMLA.

Uh we have over 100 staff that are available to work, but that have some type of intermittent PFL or P uh or FMLA, and so um that is uh You said over 100.

I believe it's a hundred and two is our number, is that correct, Lenny?

Now I know the mayor and her budget for fiscal year 27 is proposing to adjust uh those leave programs to only she's proposing to shorten the timeline.

Um, DYRS staff have routinely utilized call outs on uh June 15th of 2024, a former administrator's funeral lit to so many staff callouts that YSC suffered a complete work stoppage under this new rule that the mayor is pro uh proposing.

If the leave is foreseeable, staff must provide written notice at least 10 days in advance, which will make these call-outs much less feasible.

In addition, I think she's shortening the window of time that leave would be permitted.

So I want to say it's eight weeks, eight to two weeks.

For I believe that's for medical leave.

It's specifically for medical leave for family members.

For family members, and and there's a change for who classifies as a family member.

Correct.

So let's say hypothetically the council endorses this adjustment.

What impact would that have on the folks and on the intermittent leaves that you reference?

Well, first it would reduce the time that they would able to be able to utilize that leave for those purposes.

Um but I think the other significant part is that uh currently when they are on that intermittent type of uh leave, they only need to give us one hour of notice that they're not going to come into their scheduled shift, and that's where it becomes very difficult to plan.

It would be very interesting.

And does the Mayor's policy change change that window of time?

Yes, it does, because the requirement is for 10 days notice.

10 days.

I got it, yes.

So one hour, and I think we can all acknowledge that you can't plan and staff an agency is certainly one as important as DRS with one hour's notice.

Uh I'm I'm pretty clear-eyed that people are game in the system.

Now, I I think I'm not supposed to say that, and my team is probably looking at me like you're not supposed to say that.

Uh, but I think people are uh, you know, I think people have real challenges, and that's why we honor leave.

I support pay family leave, I support the leave policies.

Uh but when I look at numbers like that, over a hundred people, that seems to me, the word is out.

All right, this is how you stack your leave so that you get a paycheck and you don't have have to actually report.

Let me get back on track.

Um I think you're absolutely right.

If if the council were to approve these adjustments to the leave policy, I think I've lost Mama Joe, I'm sorry.

Um, if I if the council were to adjust the leave policy, would it uh affect the people already grandfathered in?

In other words, if their leave was approved last year, they're out on leave now.

If the council were to approve this change, does it include them or are we just talking about moving forward?

Um this would include moving forward.

So the people that so if you are already on leave, you are grandfathered into the existing leave policy.

Correct, but it's uh it's based on a year basis, so it extends it uh it ends at a particular specific time.

And it's worth noting that the mayor is proposing this change for one year, which I liken it to kind of want to shake the tree and get the residuals out, and then we can resume, assuming that you may be able to recapture some team members that have been away from the agency for X and amount of time.

If this policy were to go into effect, do you have a uh estimated number of staff that might return to the agency?

I do not uh have that number, but I could get that to you.

But I think one other thing that's significant that you talked about is there's another change in her policy that will help us.

So new staff coming in, currently they can take the PFL benefit on the first day that they're employed.

And so one change that she did propose was was a period of uh waiting period of one hundred and eighty days.

Um so we do see a lot of staff who utilize the benefit.

So currently on the first day of employment, someone can go on leave.

They can apply for the PFL, the paid family leave.

Understood.

And so the proposal is to uh make that waiting period for six months.

Okay.

Um I support paid family leave, but something's happening here, and I think we just need to be honest that this isn't quite uh what is intended with the program.

I digress.

Um, so over time.

It sounds like fiscal year 25, we're at roughly 8.4 million.

This existing year, it seems like we're on track to be at about 11 million, um, and what is budgeted is 13.8 million.

But director, what I'm hearing you say is that over shot you would support investing some or all of that into maintaining credible messengers.

Yes, understood.

I'm gonna stop there and I'll turn to my colleague, Councilmember Bonds.

Thank you very much.

I'm so glad you're talking about paid family leave because that is um in the um executive administration and labor uh committee that I chair.

And one of the issues that I've been concerned with is how many employee arrangements are we really attempting to uh address by changing this law, and you've helped me understand this significant.

Uh, when I think about the the value of your your agency and what you're trying to accomplish, and to know that you know your employees are, you know, that they're not really available yet you need them in order for us to do what we have to do um to keep our young people safe and engaged, etc.

It is uh very um very disheartening to know.

Um I I too I I did when we um certainly did universal pay leave.

I was one of the co-sponsors, believe in it.

But when we talk about leave at our government employee level, it concerns me uh because as you know, we all have the federal leave.

You know, we can based on our time and place we we earn um we earn um leave and we automatically earn sick leave as well as opportunities to just take leave, but then we also have added this little carrot um for the district government employees, and it is uh it's costing us um it's a double cost to us because technically we have to keep the position available to the employee that's on leave.

Meanwhile, over time and the wear and tear on the other employees in that union or that that particular unit um is exacerbated perhaps.

And I look at it from a element of fairness.

You know, we all work here, we're all apart, we all get this government paycheck.

You know, where where is it fair that someone has to has to fill in like this?

I'm I'm I will not go on record saying what my colleague said, but you can rest assured that there's a strong feeling that we have to be more intentional as to how we use the resources and particularly the amenities of our government.

So thank you for that data.

What I would like to know as as you were speaking about the family um medical leave, um, can you help me understand what your numbers have been?

Let's say in 2024, 25, and currently are they escalating?

Is the leave pattern escalating, or that would help us?

Um although I don't have the specific numbers for those years, but it has continued to escalate uh year after year after year.

I've been with DYO since 2016.

This is the highest I've ever seen it.

Uh we've never hit 100.

102, yes.

Wow.

Uh so with this being the situation.

Has how does this impact the behavior of our young people in the institutions?

That's a tough question, and I've never actually had anyone ask me that.

But I do think that when we are drafting staff who have already worked a full shift uh to stay on, and they are on tired, um, they may have a shorter fuse, they may get um uh just not be as good as they would be if they were rested, um, and and and kids may pick up on that and um react to that as well.

So I do think that there uh probably is a connection to um having staff that are working long hours or being drafted into those hours because of a very late call out.

Um and I'm sure they're not you know very happy when they're forced to stay because our staff have lives at home as well, and they may have you know something planned with their family that they've had to cancel, it's not gonna put them in the best state of mind to work with kids.

So I do think there would be an impact.

What do you have incentives for staff to make the job their very own, in other words, to make the success of the programs that they are involved with, um something that they just cannot be away from.

So you know, we we've been talking about some folks that that are maybe um misusing uh the leave benefits, but we do have a number of staff that are and a lot of staff, and I would say the majority of our staff that are very dedicated to the work that they do.

And um we recently had a uh presentation um that uh some of our young ladies at New Beginnings did for Black History Month, and um it was a great presentation.

The the young ladies did a great job, but what was notable to me was that it was organized and orchestrated by our staff.

Uh they provided all the support, they provided the research and and the training, and they came in on their free time to work with those young people.

And after that performance, I had a number of other staff approach me uh that were there in attendance and said, Hey, we'd like to do something like this with our kids, um, and I'll come on my free time.

What little free time they have to to work with those kids.

So uh absolutely we have uh uh a large number of of people that are very invested that care deeply about the kids that they work with and and are willing to go the extra mile.

The tiny house project that uh I I'd mentioned earlier, uh you may not have been here, council member, but um there are some photos uh and uh these are young people that are constructing homes and learning how to construct these homes, and the people that are providing all of the guidance are our staff.

These are the people that fix the plumbing when it breaks, that repair the walls or or do whatever and they know the building trades, they know construction, and uh it was organic from them.

It was my my director that came to me and said, you know, the reason I came to work at this agency um was because I wanted to work with young people, and I wanna do this program.

Uh and so there there are shoots of of really really um high quality people with big hearts that care deeply about our kids, and those are the ones that are making the big difference.

All right, well, I would like to I would like to know so much more about your tiny houses project um especially thinking about workforce development and how do we move these young people into a new way of thinking about the world that is theirs.

Um so I we only have two minutes less than two minutes.

That's I can give you a lot of information too.

I can no no you can't you you no no no you you you like to talk like I do so that's not happening.

So maybe I can come back have can I have a third round if that's okay with you.

Alright I really would like to do that because this you're you're hitting on two things that I think are really critical from what little bit I've been tracking what we've been doing um and I call it the receiving home and what have you for for years okay and um you're talking about how staff becomes um animated when they're doing something they feel they're really contributing you know an um new breath new life and that's so important in order to keep the ship afloat as I call it you're also saying that young people they like this they like to I think I read somewhere with some um European um prime minister that when he felt depressed he just did he he actually did bricklaying he just did it because it it helped him to just concentrate and and to think about you know the world and what he what else he needed to do I guess but this is um this is sounds like a dynamite program and I hope that you can expand it and I'm sure my colleague will tell me that you probably need more money and stuff like that but it's not impossible.

It's not impossible and I guess really where I want to go with this whole thing is to understand that what you're doing is what we society are doing for our young people who are kind of like left out and so if we're gonna do this there are pots of money that we already have and if you have a subset of our school population then a subset of that money needs to be in your facilities so that we can do what we need to do with them because they're not in the public school system.

So that's that's kind of like where I'm I'm kind of coming from likewise workforce if you're going to really train people to to leave the institution and have employment that's dynamite.

That's what we need all our residents want to be able to take care of themselves.

So thank you very much for thank you and for the record uh I don't believe in putting uh limits on colleagues so you can ask as many questions as you have and we'll have as many rounds as necessary.

Then I'll turn to you uh council member bonds and run and then come back if you're good with that.

I'll try I'll stay as long as I'll stay as long as I can.

Yes.

I I have a yeah well yeah I have a I'm only gonna ask one round of questions.

Alright okay I did also want to acknowledge um I got a text from council member Turing White who agrees that 102 people out on leave is kind of crazy.

And so again I just think it's something we have to look at.

I am in no way impinging people's character or suggesting that all of those folk are out for nefarious reasons but I think we can all agree that you can't effectively run an agency as important as D R S when an hour before you might have any number of people calling out.

So uh we that is something we'll look at, and I have on the record, and I'll just say this for the public record.

Vouched for the mayor's uh one year proposed change for governmental agencies is different than the public version.

Um and if my colleagues aren't willing to go uh with that, I have advocated for let's just do it at DRS.

Um, because I realize something needs to change at the agency.

So more to come on that.

Uh in response to prehearing question two, D R S reported that the vacancy rate was currently 7.1%.

And we um I have a number of questions here, but this connects to what we were just talking about.

Which positions are DRS seeing most vacant?

I know you share your schedule A, but if you could walk us through that.

Absolutely.

Um, so our current vacancy rate today, just a snapshot in time.

So um today is 6.4%.

Um, but where we're seeing the most turnover and the most vacancies are in our direct care staff.

So that is the YDR staff, uh the supervisory YDR staff, um, our nurses, uh medical staff, and our culinary staff.

And how many YDRs are vacant?

So it's pretty low for YDR vacancies right now.

There's a total of six YDR vacancies right now.

And what about credible messengers?

So credible messenger staff are not employed by DYRS.

Oh, that's not on your staffing line item.

We do have credible messenger staff that monitor the credible messenger providers.

Are you speaking of those or because we because we we procure?

Do you have vacancies there?

On internally?

Yes.

No.

Okay.

What strategies are you all leveraging and if you could speak more to the challenges you're running into trying to hire for those positions?

Uh absolutely, I'd be happy to speak to that.

So uh this market right now, there's a big demand for nurses, clinical nurses.

Yeah, we're all the nurses.

We don't have them in our schools.

Yeah, it's a huge demand.

So it's very competitive.

No, seriously, where did they go?

I feel like after the pandemic, it's like we're missing so many professions.

Uh I say that in part in just, but I am aware of the challenge with the supply.

Yes.

So one of your unique challenges for the district and hiring nurses is that um their pay is stipulated by uh the nurses' contract, um, which dictates um the pay based on the years of service that they have or the experience that they have, which isn't necessarily the same in private industry.

So that's one area that we have to look at.

It's hard to be competitive.

It's very hard to be competitive when you're looking at you know children's Johns Hopkins and places like that.

It becomes extremely competitive.

Um the other part of it is uh scheduling flexibility now because there's just the great need for nurses.

There's a lot of flexibility outside of government.

Yeah, um, and so right now we don't have that flexibility again based on the contracts, based on our needs, can't compete with that flexibility.

So we are you uh if there was a way that we could supplement your budget for either signing bonuses or some type of supplemental investment for nurses, uh, would that run a foul to the contract uh that nurses have in the city?

Absolutely not.

Okay, I will say that's something we did last year with CFSA in terms of their social workers, and it was hugely successful.

We gave them a pot of money for a signing bonus, and they've been able to hire dozens of sign, you know, uh social workers.

I don't know if that will completely solve the problem, but it's something that we can certainly look at.

And can you um just elaborate where in particular those vacancies are uh for the those nursing positions?

So the vacancies are in both facilities.

So there's um, get this correct for you here.

Um there are three vacancies uh at YSC for clinical nurse, and there are two nurse practitioners.

At YSC.

At YSC, and then the remaining, and then what about new beginnings?

That is, um, that's that's actually the total.

So they're all at YSC.

Sorry.

They're all at YC.

The vacancies are all at YSC.

So five vacancies, yes, sorry.

Okay.

In response also to question two, the agency reported that there's two vacancies in the Office of Research and Evaluation for Program Analysts.

Part of the bill that I introduced through the Care for Youth Plan, the strengthening capacity and transparency of D R S amendment act of 2025 was recently passed by the council.

This would require the agency to take on some of those data data analytic responsibilities that were previously managed by the Office of Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight.

I do want to acknowledge that right now the agency has been doing that based on a handshake agreement.

This essentially enshrines that in law.

The question that I have is what is uh D R S's plan to fill these positions, and if they remain vacant, uh what challenges might you run into to publishing this data on an ongoing basis moving forward?

Uh for our Office of Research and Evaluation, we have selected the candidate and we're waiting back.

We are waiting background.

Nice.

That's progress.

Great.

Uh and is it accurate to assume that that person or team would be responsible for managing the data systems that are on the website?

Yes.

Got it.

Okay.

Small but mighty team.

That's what we that's what we understood, but we just wanted to make sure our thinking was right there.

Um so great.

Um, let me ask this.

Should things go well, when might that person start?

Maybe 30 days with background check.

Okay.

In response to prehearing question 10, the agency stated that it hired a management analysts to schedule predisposition meetings, but did not provide an answer to whether a pre-commitment coordinator had been hired.

Uh you stated the agency stated it would be hiring a coordinator at the performance oversight hearing that we held earlier this month on February 9th.

Uh so I my question is has the agency hired the pre-commitment coordinator, and if not, why not?

We have hired the pre-commitment coordinator.

She is on board and she is uh coordinating those uh pre-disposition meetings, and we have had a number of those meetings already.

So that person is in on board, she's on board and she's working.

The one position that we have yet to fill is the attorney position that uh went along with it.

Um but we do have a candidate selected.

So the interviews are completed, she's been selected, and we are anticipating on a May 18th start date.

Okay.

And with those people in position, what impact to the predisposition meeting, the creation of these individualized like what should be the impact that we see come from these new hires?

So they'll be able to coordinate those predisposition meetings where we meet with you know all of the enumerated parties that um are in the statute and uh discuss uh sort of what options the department has for somebody if they were committed to us.

So I think it does give a lot of guidance to um the court and to the practitioners that are involved about uh what's possible, um, and I think it gives us a bit of a heads up and a little bit of an early view of um what we can anticipate.

So that's a big deal.

So over the last year we've gone from we don't have enough staff, not sure we can do the road act to hiring people with the vision and goal uh of actually implementing the legislation.

And just to make sure I'm clear, when the coordinator and the attorney position is filled, um for all young people in D R S, we should stand up systems so that we're honoring the letter of the law, yes, and and so those are the predisposition meetings, and I think the bigger um, I'll say success, is in the pre-commitment unit.

So that was the unit that we reallocated resources.

We did not get resources, but we did reallocate uh staff to stand up additional uh individuals that would do those YLS assessments.

So when we get a notice of intent to commit, we are the law triggers us to have to do a YLS assessment.

And so we've added a number of staff.

Um we do have a few uh vacancies in there.

I believe there are two vacancies in that expanded unit, but it is a larger unit than we had uh pre uh road act, and and so I I say that just to to um to say that you know, even though that I did oppose the passage of the law, we are working diligently to implement it within our resources.

And um I'm gonna turn, but just to make sure I'm clear, uh there's two vacancies.

So does that mean you now have all of the resources you need for the legislation, or in this budget cycle, should we be looking to invest more?

Um in terms of those road act positions, uh I think uh the the best course of action is to uh let us implement with the resources that we have and let's see where there may be pinch points, but at this point uh the team is is really pulled together and and they're doing what they need to do.

Um, you know, the one thing I would say is we pulled from the care coordination team to fill those pre-commitment uh positions.

So that would be the area I would I would look to for um support uh and see how we're doing there.

But uh at this point, um I think a wait and see approach is is probably understood.

Who is responsible for creating the individualized plans for the young people?

So that is a that is a team effort.

So it starts with the uh YLS assessment.

That is the first uh component, which is that pre-commitment team is owning.

Exactly.

So that's gonna identify the needs that the youth has based on that YLS.

That YLS then will be uh if we're talking about a kid that goes to New Beginnings, if that's where they're placed, will be uh uh expanded upon by the team that is there.

Our our behavioral health team, our treatment team, which is behavioral health, secure programs, all of the uh folks that work at New Beginnings will then develop that individualized plan for that youth in exactly the way that that team fully staffed, that behavioral health team.

Do we have any vacancies in behavior?

Fully staffed.

Do they need more staff?

Because what I'm hearing from folks is we're not seeing individualized plans.

Well, if you recall to our oversight hearing, um we did bring Dr.

Solidity and she is here today again.

Um, and uh there the plan that is in the electronic health records that is HIPAA sort of contained and blocked off from most people seeing, has that individualized care in there.

And I think that's so your argument is we are creating the plan, we just can't share it.

Well, we can share it with council, we can't share it, we don't share it with um most of our staff because it is a health record.

Um what we do is a more generalized version of that for our staff.

That's the success plan, which would articulate here's what you need to do in order to implement this plan.

But our behavioral health team is the one that is guiding that and how that works so that they can maintain it.

Where did you get the idea that it's a HIPAA violation?

So uh it was likened to uh IEP for a student in school today.

We don't say you can't see a student's IEP because it's a HIPAA violation.

Um although I would imagine if there are some sensitive health things in that document that can be redacted, but the document itself, I find it hard to square that we would say you can't share that or produce it generally because it's a HIPAA violation.

Well, and we can bring Dr.

Solidity up and she can expand on this.

Okay, but there are there is very council member bonds I didn't mean to go down this rabbit hole.

Sure.

There's very sensitive information that is shared between the youth and the practitioner.

You need to press the button.

Yeah so the the information that isn't put in the plans that are shared with the greater team like the YDR staff is sensitive information.

So that's specific diagnoses or specific medications.

That said it's described in a way so that they know what behaviors they're dealing with.

They're knowing what you know triggers there might be they might know that they're on medication they just don't know the specific information that's so you it's restricted.

Okay.

All right I'm gonna come back to this.

I'm gonna turn to Councilmember Bonds I'm gonna run and come right back.

Okay.

Uh and then we're gonna jump back into the RODA.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

And I want the chair to know that I think he's doing a terrific job um holding your feet to the fire and giving you a little bit of cool air every now and then too so it's all working out very very well.

I too had questions about um I guess the plan is the progression plan that I heard earlier testimony that is the plan that each young person has once they are in our facility I wanted to understand um a little bit about you said you tailor each plan to each youth so it's individualized and um it also includes the education education component what their needs are does it also include what their recreational expectations are like outdoors you know three hours um or you know exercise I mean what does it what what can we look to when we talk about there are achievements at every level I was very curious when I heard that statement.

Thank you for that question.

So because it's individualized um based on what a youth's needs are or their interests the information will be included so for instance every youth will have a large muscle included so at new beginnings large muscle included in their day their education their day to day schedule oh thanks.

So that part would be included in what they're already doing but beyond that you might have a youth who really enjoys exercise like that is where they find um what you were talking about before about how some people do bricks it's different you know part of what our treatment is is helping youth find what helps them get there and it's not the same it's exploration so that's partially what we do so some youth really love to exercise so their plan will have a little more time in the gym that will be an incentive or they might be doing exercise trying to push themselves on the units to do more pushups or lead exercise groups.

Whereas for another youth it might be something like writing I mentioned that before so they might spend a lot of time doing more journaling or writing so the part the part of the process is learning them learning what helps them get to that place and then incorporating that in their plan.

So that's why a plan will look different for each youth.

Thank you very much for that I I guess I'm also thinking that the plan when we talk about achievement levels what help help me understand what that might be.

Just using as your example of a young person who wants to exercise you know, maybe they come in and they say, you know, I'm not as fit as I'd like to be, or I want my muscles to increase um two inches in in diameter.

I mean, that's something that I can understand, but surely when we talk about achievements at each level, I'm sure there's the achievement and behavior, managing their behavior, um, education, um, cognitive skills, getting along with others, you know, you know, de-escalation of anger.

That's what I think you're talking about, but am I correct or and and when you say you there are achievement levels?

Are there um numerical um achievements?

You know, how how do how does what does this plan really look like?

And how does the plan that someone is really doing better?

And is ready to be with the rest of us in society?

I think it's a great question.

Um you mentioned all of the factors that might be relevant for a specific youth, some youth might come in.

Education isn't their issue, it's more about managing their anger when they get stressed out or being I c I partially want to save this answer for when um Councilman Parker comes back because only because he mentioned coming in and seeing a meeting, um, and I wanted to use my example to actually put some context to the meeting that he that he described.

But in general, um well, you can repeat it.

Okay, I'll do that.

All right, okay.

So he mentioned that he came in and he said that uh it was very subjective.

This meeting that he went to where this youth was shy, it felt very subjective.

And what I wanted to point out is that um it was subjective exactly because we're not cookie cutter.

If we were cookie cutter and that uh plan was simply don't get in a fight, go to school and follow your schedule, then the youth would have made his level.

But for that particular youth, um his actual, so he had reached some of those behavioral goals.

It's good not to get into a fight, it's good to go to school.

His main issue though, his trauma response is that when he uh gets stressed out, shuts down, and then it builds up and then he explodes and does things because his decision making completely plummets.

So his individual plan was don't get into fights, go to school, do all that, but we want to see you increase your communication.

We want to see you be able to tell us when you need help and we need you.

So the reason it was subjective is because they had to um assess from how he came in relative to his baseline.

Has he been progressing?

Is he talking more?

So there couldn't be a second.

And excuse me, but that's what I'm trying to understand.

How what what do we measure in order to know that the young person is quote unquote improving?

And and in that understanding, I'm trying to I'm trying to phantom how many young people for instance have went through this, having this plan in FY25, and from that number, how many progressed?

And if you can look back to, I guess we've only had it for a few years, um, this particular approach.

So now we're talking into FY26.

In other words, you know, we do a lot of things, um we we believe that they are going to make a difference, but what are the measurable results?

And how many start?

Is it 100 that start and then 75 can progress, or is it a hundred that start and ten progress?

Because that helps us understand whether or not the prescriptions that we write really work.

So the measured success is different for each youth.

So for this particular youth that I'm talking about who needed to improve his communication, his measure would be is he actually going to his therapy sessions?

Is he communicating with his staff?

Is he communicating with his so I'm asking how many how many do what is on the program?

So this plan, and then you can say that they have achieved that they're moving forward.

So all the youth that progress to through the level system have arguably shown progress in the areas that they need to.

That said, something you said earlier about are they ready to come back to us?

By the time they reach that level and have shown some progress, it's not as though they're completely changed.

Their progress has to continue in the community.

So all of the discussion here about community supports and treatment is I'm in complete support of that because while they might have gotten into a place where they're they're able to seek help a little earlier or they're able to actually start using resources, they have to be able to continue that in a different environment.

So all right.

So we we are really um saying that your facilities are a stop along the journey of life.

That's what you're telling me.

Well, let me let me just maybe I think clarify because I think I'm interpreting your question a little bit different.

Um, we do have kids that progress and do well, and we have confidence that they're going to be successful.

They're not always uh as successful as we'd like, and then we place them back into the community.

There are kids that um we don't have that level of confidence, but their commitment ends, and we release them back into the community because that's the end of their commitment, or they've hit their 21st birthday.

I'd have to look back and sort of get a a number.

I don't have one in front of me, but I think that's what you're getting at.

Is how many are I truly am.

I'm trying to understand if what we're doing is having impact, positive impact.

Are we changing the lives of our young people?

Or are we just a stop along the road, and they may come back to us or they may move somewhere else?

This is very important.

You know, the other day when we were at the library, I asked the mayor, I said, and she was presenting this budget.

I said, so like how many people have we moved the dial on?

How many have we moved out of poverty?

I am sincerely concerned.

We spend 20 billion plus for the last four or five years.

So what what is it doing for the community for the people who live here?

I'm very serious about this, and being an older person, getting older every minute, you know, whatever, um, I'm very concerned.

I'm very concerned because I'll soon only have my little retirement money, and you'll still be getting some of that, and I'll have much less.

So I'll be wondering, so what is what's going on with my money?

And that's what I hear from our aging community all the time.

How is my money helping?

Is it helping?

And so that's that's it's a very sincere um re request of trying to understand.

Are we really making a difference in these young folks' lives?

And to that, I would be curious to know what we're doing or if you're doing um or have any can say or control as to those who go into the community residential facilities.

How's that going?

You say don't you don't you also have um number of facilities, you know, like those that are on probation, I think.

So probation is a different system.

Okay, that's Court Social Services.

Um I see, but um, we in the community we do um fund the operation of shelter homes, yes.

Which is um intended to be for y young people that are uh awaiting trial that would otherwise be detained but can be housed in a shelter home.

Um and uh so we we do have those operations.

Um we do contract for group homes as well.

Those are committed youth that we place in group homes.

Yes.

Um but that's a much smaller slice of what we do.

What does that mean a longer slice?

Smaller, smaller, okay.

Okay.

Um how many do we have in the group homes?

Do we have a number for group homes?

Let me just uh take a quick note on our pop sheet.

I have that, but I gotta and are the group homes included in your budget?

Yes, they are.

Okay, they are.

That's what I was speaking of.

I didn't know the right nomenclature.

We have a total of well, total of 18 youth in group homes, only eight.

As of yesterday.

In how many different locations?

Seven.

And that's out of 204 committed youth.

So do you count the 18 within your 204?

Yes.

Okay.

Great.

All right.

And what is your agency's responsibility to these young people that are in these seven sort of outsourced locations as it relates to education, uh recreation, is it that they also are on a plan, a progression plan, and so there's some monitoring of these facilities.

And they have individualized plans of action that they have treatment plans as well.

Um they go to school in the community.

They're not going to school in the my you know, in our C forever uh partner schools.

So they are going to community schools, and they are uh, you know, overseeing or or supervised by the group homes, so like Sasha Bruce or one of our.

So what what does your data show you as to the success of going through the progression plan process for those that are placed in these group homes versus what happens for those that are in your you know larger stand-up facilities?

So we're we're working on uh recidivism analysis that would look at these different populations.

Uh we don't have a breakout at this point that I'm aware of that would um separate um different committed populations.

Okay, but we've had we've had these arrangements for many years, yeah.

Well, so we never collected this data in this way?

We don't have access to that data.

Okay, because when a young person is um released back into the community, um, if they commit a new offense, right, and they're not recommitted to DYRS, we may not know about that.

And we don't have it's not in our data system because we're not a unified system.

So, Mr.

Director, when are we going to put this together?

I'm putting this up.

So that it makes sense.

I am working on as we speak.

We say that our kids are our future.

We say that we want to um have better outcomes in the general population with our young people, and you're one of the few locations where they come together and they get some um individualized attention.

So we are working directly with the courts to gain access to that information so we can do that analysis.

Well, if you think someone like myself can help you in any way, I the door is totally open, wide open.

Absolutely.

Well, I think because this is this is a travesty.

It really and truly is.

It is, it is, and it should have been done years ago.

Yes, many, many years ago.

Yes.

But as I came here, no, this is something that we did not have access to.

I have been in communication with the administrative uh judge, and he is now amenable.

Judge Lee is amenable to doing that.

So we are actually in the process of uh having our technical experts, our IT folks from both teams uh review how we can do a two-way data exchange specifically so that we can do recidivism analysis.

And so will that be done through a um a law, or will that be um you all sign an MOU?

I don't think that the council could compel the court to provide us the data.

We could say that this is our position, and they frequently decide whether or not they are going to implement what we say.

Yes, and I believe that there is a piece of legislation pending with council right now requiring a recidivism analysis, and so yes, if that's passed that that would potentially help us.

Alright, so my my colleague, the chair of this committee, will I guess further inform me about that.

Let I'd like to see that, please, since I'm sure it came to him, I would assume.

I believe it's his judiciary one or the other.

Yes.

I'm on judiciary, so I can get that, but not on this committee, but I I appreciate having the opportunity to to speak with you about and I am passionate, but I'm also a little common sense about this, and um, you know, trying to do what I can while I can do the cleanup, so to speak.

I totally understand.

And so, you know, I know that you have to do that.

We have the passion, okay.

No, I I love your passion, and I always appreciate it.

Um I know that you had some questions uh about the tiny house project that you wanted to ask.

I you know, before knowing this, I came with the intentions of asking about a if it was possible to do a workforce development project with your youth, um, and maybe get uh habitat for humanity in involved to do just this, and uh when you were talking about the renovation and what have you, I was like, Well, does that think does that lend it?

So this is absolutely perfect what you are already involved in, and um if it if there's a way to make it more robust and get more young people involved in this, I'm all for it and we'll do what we can.

If you have some connections with Habitat for Humanity, please um uh put us in contact.

Uh I know that Dr.

Fish here has been an advocate of how do we get these houses to people that could use them.

I think that they may be the kind of partner that we would need because what we're doing is teaching the construction process, um, but we don't have the uh obviously access to to land, where would we put those things?

Um that's where we would need a partner in the community that could take that to the next level, and that's something I would be very interested in exploring.

So now you're moving into this real world and the real world is do we think about a bridge program where you again a progress progression in the plan where you achieve you know a certain standard, and do you then have an opportunity to have a stipend and that and a stipend account, so that there's some incentive to really get it get it right to get it straight.

I think that that would be that's where I'd like to see us go.

Fantastic, and our kids that work should be paid for their their labor and they should be paid fair market value for their labor.

Um well I I can't can't go there yet but you know well as an apprentice depending on the age yes yes of course and then of course yes as apprentice yes no I I think there's a lot of hope I'm hoping that um you will be able to get much of this accomplished I think it would bring um new life into what we say we're doing for our young people so I I appreciate that very much.

I'll I'll just add um that we do have uh a sort of uh related program in the community through um our our vocational program and credible messenger partnership which is called Volt Academy and that's um in the community they are also doing a construction program uh that gets uh those same skills uh and we have kids in enrolled and involved in that as well um but I'm I'm very excited about what we can accomplish at OASIS because we have uh access to um professionals not just at our OASIS campus uh we do have a licensed carpenter there that does uh teach our young people including kids from new beginnings uh carpentry um but it's it's the practitioners themselves that we have on our staff these are the the uh folks that fix uh the plumbing when it breaks and repair uh the HVAC system when it goes down um they have uh certified you know folks there uh that not only have those skills but have that passion and they want to work with our kids and I'll just add that our manager uh that leads the program is a former construction manager and he built homes this is uh really right up his alley and uh I think it's a great opportunity to share their skills they're they're anxious to do that and they have been doing that we've we've already uh you know completed one as you can see yeah um and we want to continue to do that with our young people.

And so when you're you're saying that the this training it takes place on campus inside your facility.

That's correct.

All right and so have you thought about how we can uh take our individuals leave the premises work on a work site let's say in northwest southeast return back to the facility so and count their dollars in their little cash you know accounts uh that's something we we have been trying to explore and you know we we are putting some components together uh again at that oasis campus um we do have two homes that are going to be constructed there um that'll be right across the street from our carpentry program all right and um we've we've had some preliminary so who who will live in those homes it'll be youth that are released fantastic yes uh I just I want to hear more about this and I want to come out and haven't been out there in many many a year but um very excited about this it's just like new life and um thank you very much for for for what you're doing.

Absolutely I appreciate your your ongoing strong support I know you you hold us accountable but you're coming at it from a place of love and and caring about the outcomes for our kids and that is absolutely in alignment with that.

And trying to be a strong custodian of our dollars.

Yes.

Can I this time to plug if you wanted to visit the OASIS?

We're actually having a spoken word poetry um events at the OASIS for families and youth, not only who are in New Beginnings right now, but also youth who've returned to the community are coming back to perform.

It's next Saturday from twelve to 2 during visitations.

I'll send you a flyer.

We would love for you to do absolutely.

Yeah.

When I worked at Georgetown, we um had one of our um I was with the Center for Social Justice, blah, blah, blah.

Okay, that we created.

And one of the things we had was um we took poetry, of course, then we didn't come to DC, we took poetry into um Arlington County jail and what have you.

So it's it's a the the spoken word um event, I think it's gonna be very powerful.

We've had one already and uh two, I'm sorry.

Um I guess I only attended one.

Yeah, and um the young people put a tremendous amount of preparation into um their work and it shows and and they really are uh incredible.

We actually have uh one of our young people who is um leaving.

I think she's already actually um left our our facility, um, that we're connecting with community-based poetry um uh uh I guess event that is being hosted by bus boys and poets.

Oh, yes, and um because of the interest that she expressed and the outreach that I got from um uh actually Reverend Motley has is uh connected with we're getting her involved in that and and we're very excited about that, and we want to uh uh give give our young people an opportunity to show everybody uh really what their talents are, what they're what they're capable of and they're capable of so much.

That sounds great.

There are many people in community uh retirees that have skill sets and they would just love to have an opportunity.

So think about how you can bring community in to help and what your security need is and whatever, whatever.

But I see this as a way of getting our young people acclimated anew to the environment in which they live.

So um I can't respond.

Can I add if you are on a tour?

Um if you could also look at the tiny house project that's taking place there, as well as the project that we have with the co our credible messengers and the construction in the community because our next phase is to renovate senior homes right now.

I have they have renovated a home.

That's why I'm here today, you know.

I I knew all of this.

No, this is fabulous, fabulous.

I would I would we would love to view both of those projects as well.

We have an um automotive program that is taking place at New Beginnings where youth are receiving a ASE certifications.

Excellent.

Excellent.

I I would really like to have the opportunity to meet with you, meet with your team, um, because on the outside of your facility, um, through some of the workforce agencies, uh, they sound like they're planning to replicate what you're already doing.

Isn't that something?

And so I think we need to come together, um, because the need is definitely there, and um let's see how these dollars are really spent.

Well, we'd love to host you community.

Natalie, you'll look up your entire calendar with uh things to visit.

So, well, we we can do a lot, I think, in June.

Yeah, in June.

Once we yeah, yeah, we can do a lot after the well, it's really ends up being late June, July, we can do it.

Yeah, we'll follow up with dates for all of those.

Yeah, we're we're um my my staffer is very much burning on this idea of apprenticeships and working with D O E S.

But I thought we save that for when we do our tour and see what we really we really can do.

Um already you have informed me that there may be an opportunity for you to have additional resources that may help more of our young people become engaged involved.

And sometimes all they need is just an idea, at least that's what I heard from the um youth um hearing the other day.

Everybody wants to earn money, and we ought to be thinking about that.

This is the society we've created, and this is the society that they're in and know a lot about.

Okay, well, your chairman is here, so um I'm at zero time, and thank you very much.

But I've got commitments now with your with your team that I'm excited about.

Thank you very much.

Uh thank you, Councilmember Bonds.

Uh normally I would not run out of my own hearing.

Uh, but as the Ward Five council member, there are some very serious issues uh with the DPR planning that uh I would be remiss not to have addressed.

Absolutely.

Um so thank you for your patience.

If you give me a second to find my place, what are the commitments?

What did I miss?

So um we we did follow up on the the tiny house project um and uh I believe we also invited council member bonds uh uh sent you an invitation to this to our spoken word event.

Yes.

Um not this Saturday, but next Saturday at OASIS.

What time is that?

Twelve to two.

One to two, twelve to two, twelve to two.

During visitation for families.

Okay, um and then to also we have uh a uh community-based um uh uh renovation project that is working with um elderly folks in the community and uh she was interested as well to uh see that.

Okay, I'm jumping back in.

Let's go to the re-entry division.

We had talked about this before.

I believe the goal was to in January of this year to stand up this division more formally.

Uh I if I remember correctly, I believe late last year before um January, you had actually stood up the team.

Uh there has been significant discussion about the importance of transition planning for juveniles and the significance of their reentry into society.

What is the update on this re-entry division at the agency?

So what we've been working on with them is to uh develop uh again, this is kind of going back to the road act and getting those re-entry plans done within um the uh first 60 days of admission into uh the facility.

And so uh we have uh uh develop those procedures so that a TDM is scheduled within 30 to 60 days of placement uh into new beginnings, uh and the re-entry plan is the the beginning of that planning uh starts there.

Obviously, they still have a lot of work to do while they're there, and so this is something that would be updated over time, uh, but we have stood that up.

Um I did get some some data since October.

Um we've had 61 TDMs.

Um, so that number continues to go up as we as we push out these procedures and and push for compliance.

Um and then on the front end uh we've had 82 YLSs completed.

Um, and to give you context, we've had 68 new commitments in that same time period.

So uh again.

So that's almost 100%.

Well, if you had 61.

We had 68 commitments, but we had eighty-two YLSs done, but yeah, this with the TDMs.

CDMs.

Yes.

So uh that may not be a one-to-one because they they may be committed to us, they may not all go to New Beginnings, so that's that's not uh necessarily a hundred percent.

So, we heard testimony earlier.

I want to say it was Kreider from Disability Rights DC that talked about, and I may have the wrong person, but the testimony was that the re-entry planning is starting too late, essentially.

It doesn't start in effect until a young person's on level six or seven, and what you're suggesting is that the it should be starting as the law states within 30 to 60 days of placement.

How how can we square those two things?

Is this more of an aspirational thing that it's starting 30 to 60 days?

Are you suggesting that is what's happening?

I'm suggesting that is what's happening, and maybe the the end uh the information is outdated from the person that testified.

I don't think that was from Ms.

Kreider.

Okay, maybe it wasn't, and so I my apologies.

I'm trying to remember who, but we heard it today for sure.

Um, so you're saying within 30 to 60 days of placement, the young people are receiving a plan.

We talked about those plans being held privately, not distributed, uh, but as part of that, this reentry planning is beginning as well.

Correct.

Okay.

If I randomly gave names of young people, I'm gonna ask Mama Joe to give me some names.

So that means we will be able to ask for the committee will be able to ask for their individualized plan.

Okay.

So Mama Joe, if you could think of three names, uh ask my team to come up with a name as well.

Um and I don't want this to be a gotcha, but I do want us to lean in on the quality, the breadth, the depth of these plans, because I think that's a main vehicle.

We'll handle that offline after the hearing.

Um I still challenge the notion that these plans can't be shared with advocates or PDS officials.

I know that.

Oh, it's not that they're not shared, it's just a different version.

So the only the protected part is you know, their specific diagnosis or their medication, but that information is shared.

So if somebody is suffering from depression, their plan might not say depression, but it's certainly going to list the behaviors that everybody needs to be able to do that.

So you would be able to share here's uh John Doe's plan, and here's well, here's their rehabilitation plan, and here's their success plan.

The success plan is what advocates would receive.

The rehabilitation plan I'm assuming is what's confidential in the system.

No, the what's in our system at New Beginnings is just the clinical treatment plan that a that a behavioral health licensed clinician would put in.

The success plan at New Beginnings is the rehabilitation plan.

We call it a success plan, and that is shared.

That is what and yes, we can share with you all of that so you can see the difference between using that success plan and what is in that health record.

But the feedback I've heard repeatedly is that those success plans, the rehabilitation plan, whatever you want to call it, the the document outlining the path towards rehabilitation tends to be more general surface level copy and paste from young person and young person versus very tailored to their needs.

So if you give us the names, we'll get them to you and we can talk about it.

I'm okay.

Awesome.

Welcome the feedback.

I love it.

I love it.

Uh let's keep moving for the sake of time.

So this re-entry division, it is up and running.

Yes, it is.

And that is re-entry at new beginnings?

Yes.

Just new beginnings.

Yes.

Um, and 30 to 60 days within placement, as we'll see with these plans, this team is beginning its work.

Correct.

Uh with the young person as they're planning uh to reenter society.

Okay.

And then I there is a section here on the road act.

Some of this we've already gone over, the predisposition meetings and the creating the creation of the individualized real rehabilitation plan.

That's that pre-commitment team that is now fully staffed.

Closely, yes.

Or uh it's hired for.

Yes.

Um, so how many predisposition meetings have been held this year?

We just started this month, and I believe it's been like five at the end of this month is when we began doing that.

The end of last month, excuse me.

Not the we just started this month.

So so far we have five with the goal being by let's say the summer, what should be the expectation?

By the summer, we should be doing them for everybody.

For everybody, yes.

Okay.

So we'll say by June, well, no, this is already May.

It's hard to believe.

Let's be generous and say by July.

Uh the expectation is fair to say that all young people at D R S will receive these pre-disposition meetings.

Now, the law was passed and implemented well long ago, but what you've said on the record before is that you needed time to staff up, create a create protocols and systems, and so we'll look to July as a benchmark there.

How many um who's part of the predisposition meeting?

I'd have to look back at the statute, but it would be the care coordinator, uh, the youth's attorney, the youth parents.

We invite court social services.

Uh I don't know if they're a mandatory member, but they are invited.

So they're the ones I can remember, but uh there may be others that are that are part of that meeting.

Is PDS invited to these meetings?

Well, whoever the youth's attorney is, if it's PDS or if it's a so their attorney is invited?

Yes.

Are parents invited?

Yes.

Okay.

And so far we've had five.

Um actually for the five that we have.

We'll follow up also, but are there what kind of documentation follows that predisposition meeting?

I need to check with the team if we were going to lean on um developing a transcript through um co-pilot.

Okay.

But I don't know if if that was that was done.

We did get some uh folks that that weren't comfortable with AI transcribing things, so I have to check and see how we're keeping minutes.

Uh can you just walk me through what that division is actually doing?

So we heard testimony earlier uh about can we connect children or young people with the services before they leave no new beginnings?

That is something I would imagine that re-entry division is focused on.

What efforts has DRES made to ensure that young people are quickly re enrolled in school upon being discharged, or uh gaining employment, or whatever that case may be.

So can you just walk me through what that re-entry division is focused on?

So I mentioned that they begin the re-entry planning at that 30 to 60 day mark, and then they actually take over the management of the case from the community care coordinator.

So they will actually manage that case because they're stationed there at New Beginnings.

Um they will participate in the TDMs, uh, and they will also, you know, be there to meet with the kids and track their progress.

Uh, and then they will be uh helping to develop that re-entry plan, along with our treatment team uh to get that kid back into the process.

And is that plan part of the same document as the individualized rehabilitation plan?

Or is this a separate document?

I believe it's a separate document.

Okay.

But it will be based on that rehabilitation plan.

It's gonna have the the components that uh the treatment team and Dr.

Salidi could probably speak a little bit about.

But why wouldn't we just create a document where all of that information is in one place that you can see here's the plan, here's the outcomes of our assessment, here's the plan, here's the re-entry support.

Here are the here are the people that are supposed to support said young person.

The reentry team, which are primarily care coordinators, they use this success plan, that's what it's called that has all of that information in.

Okay, so but you made a distinction between the success plan and the individualized rehabilitation plan.

No, this the success plan is the individualized.

Because we we hear this all the time that there isn't anything specific to this kid, it's generic.

And I'm making the point that in the health records there is far more specific information that we just don't include in uh in that level of detail in the success plan.

Are the outcomes of the YLS included in that success plan?

The YLS is what drives the development of that success plan.

So, yes, that's gonna be what creates the needs that we have to address.

Okay, so then you have that plan, and you're saying on that document are the details for re-entry as well or the re-entry plan.

Yeah, so it would happen successively, so as uh 30 to 60 days, you know, they'll start talking and documenting on the success plan aspects of their um of their re-entry.

So all the things you discuss, like where are they gonna go to school, where are they gonna live, you know, all the different um members of the TDM uh at different meetings would be contributing to that plan.

But I would imagine if we've only completed five predisposition meetings, these plans aren't really being created yet.

The predisposition meeting is before the case even goes to um when I you know the disposition.

Are you in fact responsible?

So that's way at the beginning of the process.

So we have been doing YLSs that have been driving success plans.

That has been an ongoing thing.

We we're adding this predisposition meeting, yes, but kids do have plans, and they it's not that they didn't uh before we started doing the predisposition meetings.

Okay.

The predisposition meetings are to give all of those uh folks, including the process.

I missed the prosecutor, that was the one party I did not uh include, what the options are if you were to commit a kid.

The court may not commit that kid because they haven't yet made a decision.

Um I brought up earlier I set in on a petition check-in, I don't know if that's what you call it technically, uh, where a young person is trying to see if they go to the next level.

My reflection is it felt loose, it felt very subjective.

It felt the word I use was it was based on vibes.

Like, do I think you go to the next level?

And it didn't feel specific enough, uh, outside of the specific example, and I'm happy to elaborate on what I observed, but walk me through that petition process as it relates to the individualized plan that's created for that young person.

Sure.

Actually, the um what you're talking about when you say it's subjective or vibes, if it was what I explained earlier, because we've had we've had a couple of criticisms, one said it's too cookie cutter, one that it's um not individualized, if it was cookie cutter, just reaching those goals.

You didn't have a fight, you went to school, that would be progress, you would move up your level.

The reason that it felt subjective is because that particular use plan is that his ability to communicate when there's problems or when there's issues, is a significant issue.

So his actual needs, you mentioned that it's a personality character, personality and uh personality and behavior is actually a domain of the YLS.

Personality characteristics are in need that we have to address.

That's individual to the youth.

Even though his behavior was fine.

Behavior, so he was complying, he was doing what he, you know, he didn't get into a fight, he went to school.

But what actually drives his trauma response, what actually drives some of his maladaptive behaviors, it didn't maybe happen in that period, but was the fact that he shuts down and he can't communicate, and then he, you know, he it builds up, decision making gets poor, and then he has these explosions.

So the reason the team is working with him is to be able to be able to ask for help earlier to go to your therapy sessions to communicate better.

So it's not just that he's shy, it's just that this is a particular issue that he needs to work on that we received from the assessments and the documents.

So that is what they're working on him with.

The reason it seemed subjective is because after a youth presents to the to the team, they'll have a discussion, they will look at behavioral anchors, they will look at data to figure out has he met all of the points.

So yes, he didn't get in fights like that's really good that that behavior is fine, but has he met his individual what we wanted to see in terms of his communication being better?

So there will be a discussion amongst the team, and at that point, they if it was cookie cutter, it would be an automatic 30 days or something like that, but that's not how they decide, they have a discussion to determine.

And if they say he doesn't move to the next level, is there a petition process, or is that young person empowered to say, I actually think I did meet my goals?

Sure.

I mean, they would work, so usually they would the youth would get feedback to say, okay, here's why you didn't get your level.

So for for him, if it was due to his communication, which it sounded like it's because of how he was presenting, um, the conversation afterwards would be maybe we just have you do an assignment so you could come back next week, or maybe we do need to see you coming to your sessions.

Part of the issue was that he was reviewing he was refusing his individual sessions.

So maybe we want to see you for two weeks, go to your individual sessions and start talking about some of the issues, start reflecting, and then you could go.

So it's not it's not that it's vibes, but it's very individualized to the youth and how they come in and what they need.

So it's actually trauma-informed care and individualized treatment.

But that was created, and I'm assuming it says you have these seven levels you have to get through over a period of time.

Uh it seemed like there was a calendar given to the young person that they are clear on here's the benchmarks of goals that you have to set.

He had a packet in hand, here's what I which was completed by the way.

So he was working on it with his therapist.

Yeah, the packet was completed, his behaviors were good, but I was still told he needs to come back in three or so weeks, uh, which to me would seem a little demoralizing.

I think they were debating it.

So there is there's a discussion that happens, like you have a multidisciplinary team who sees uh different sides of a youth, and then they have to have an a discussion to individualize it.

So it's not necessarily, I think somebody in there probably thought it should be three weeks, but somebody else probably thought it should be sooner, and they have to work it out as a treatment team to decide what's the appropriate, what do we want to see from him, and then share it with the owns that petition process.

It's a multidisciplinary team.

Well, like what team owns that process.

So that when you came into the unit that's a housing unit, so that team is the one that's working with that youth, and that consists of the behavioral health staff, the juvenile justice.

But I looked in like the DRS budget book, like what team owns that process.

So we're clear on who's creating or doing the YLS.

I'm kind of clear on who's creating the plan.

I'm not quite clear who owns that petition process.

So because the whole the petition process is a team effort.

So the initial part when a youth comes to us, actually, the behavioral health staff review, all of the uh evaluations will introduce the youth to this team, and then they uh there is a a juvenile justice counselor, which is kind of like the care coordinator in the facility.

That person kind of records everything, has their folder, but the team comes together to the and the petition packet is in a folder that's with that JJIC, but it is incorporates all the feedback from the team.

Okay, so then that petition team, I'm still not clear, but let's just put the sake of time.

That petition team goes through its process.

Then at some point, I'm assuming they are handing off the files to the re-entry team.

And the re the re-entry the care coordinator, the re-entry team is part of that core.

They're part, so the so those care coordinators that would be the reentry unit are part of the petition process.

Right.

So they might not come directly to the petition because they might have other things to do, but they will meet with the team weekly.

So if they don't come to the actual petition, they will have a meeting with the team, maybe the next day, so that the team could say, you know, we were worried about his communication, you know, and give feedback to the care coordinator who would then incorporate it to the re-entry plan.

Okay.

I mean, one reflection I have is it seems like we're expecting continuity, although there is four or more different teams or units dealing with one kid.

Um, it's where the youth wherever the youth lives, so there each housing unit has a team.

So wherever they live, that's their team.

I get that.

Um let me ask it this way.

So that that care team or care coordinator team that's embedded in the unit where that kid lives that's part of the petition process.

Are those all the same people that from the beginning to exit are involved in that young person's journey?

The only reason it would change is if a youth moves to a different unit for a different for some reason.

Like if a youth has to have a conflict, has an altercation that can't be restored for safety issues and has to move to a different unit, then their team would change.

But we really try, we're trying to keep it a single team from beginning to end.

And then I'm assuming I know the answer to this to this, but zooming out, who is overseeing or managing all of the units or all of the documents and plans that are supposed to be happening in these different units?

So that would be the supervisor, the JJIC supervisor.

And who is that?

Ms.

Glover.

Miss Clover.

I'm sorry?

Miss Glover.

Miss Glover.

So you would say she is, was she the one?

Was she in the petition meeting that I observed?

No.

No, no, okay.

I mean, she would be the one making sure that the after the team meets, there's documentation of the different interventions that would be um that would be put into a plan because the JJIC is the one that you know is recording.

I'm thinking there should be someone sitting in the agency that says this unit, this unit, they have their stuff, this unit is behind.

Or why are these young people over here meeting goals?

Yes, these people over here now.

So the juvenile justice institutional counselor, which is what Dr.

Solidity was describing as like a case manager, those are the people that shepherd the process along.

And that's Ms.

Glover.

Well, Miss Glover supervises all of the JJICs, but it would be an individual JJIC for that unit that is responsible for ensuring that okay, it's time to have this meeting.

Um, and what she's describing is that the treatment team is the one that's going to make the decision.

The JJIC doesn't make the decision.

They're just the ones to shepherd the process along.

Uh not that that's all they do, but the treatment team is the one that's going to control what happens, and they do have discussion.

And where is the treatment team?

That's that's the what she mentioned in that embedded unit.

So the embedded unit is the treatment team, the JJIC is case management or oversight.

Uh yes.

Okay.

Um, more to come on this.

Uh, let me ask it this way.

Are there more resources, FTs support needed in this space?

So that we can get more individualized plans that have re-entry planning of part of it that young people are getting what they need.

I think that um JJICs is an area that we we are fairly thin.

And certainly that would be helpful.

Okay.

How many people are on that team currently?

Each housing unit.

It's the behavior hall staff.

It's about the JJICs.

Oh, three.

So there's three, but how many units are there at New Beginnings?

There's six units.

So there should at best be six members on that JJIC unit.

Should I wait?

Like, they're hiding in the back.

You all can come.

Ms.

Lyles can come up too.

Well, she is coming up.

The question is how many at capacity, how many members would be on that JJIC team, and how many folks are on that team currently?

So I can answer the question about currently.

There's three at YC and three at New Beginnings, but I'll defer to Deputy Director Lyles for the second part of your question.

Ideally, we would like to have two JJ I C one JJIC per housing unit.

Per housing unit will be ideal, but to at least have two units to one JJIC would be manageable.

Understood.

And remind me, how many units are at New Beginnings versus YC?

We have six housing units at New Beginnings and ten at YSE.

Okay.

So we should at best have 16 folks on that JJIC team.

And just to make sure I'm understanding it, these would be like air traffic control folk to make sure all the plans are moving.

Young people are progressing through their petition process.

If I'm understanding that, and that they get to their different programs, they're responsible for, yes, they are.

Air traffic controller is probably the best analogy.

Understood.

And I know the staffing challenges that the agency has, but given that there's a shortage, because if you're saying you have three across YSC and New Beginnings?

No.

Three in each.

Okay.

So you have six total.

Um I imagine if that air traffic controlling is not happening, we're we're losing line and sight into whether the plans are moving kids or moving, whether they're getting to programming on time because others are stretched in trying to own what they're owning.

Yeah, it it can be there there can be backups and we do have issues sometimes with kids getting where they need to be, particularly getting their timely.

Because it is a yeah.

That does happen.

And I'm not looking at it, but are there vacancies in it?

Like what is the challenge here?

Is it that you need FTs for that team, or is it that you've been having trouble hiring for that team?

We don't have any vacancies.

We get an overwhelming um overwhelming response when we get to that.

If we were to try to get to 16, we would need to add FTs for that line item to hire people to support, yes, because we don't have any vacancies.

Understood.

And then for the staff in the units, um the staff that is overseeing the petition process, but also shepherding young people through their time at new beginnings, let's say.

So if you have six units at capacity, how many staff per unit should you have in each unit?

I'm talking about the YDR staff?

Total staff.

So YDR staff, you would have to have two.

10 youth on a housing unit ratio is one to eight.

So it would be two direct care staff at all times for that housing.

And if I remember correctly, we asked about YDRs.

Um, and the vacancies there.

What other staff in the unit is needed?

So we would need a J, we talked about the JJIC, the YDRs.

There is a behavioral health staff assigned to the unit.

Where are we with that?

So ideally speaking, each unit would have its own behavioral health person.

I think that would be ideal.

So I'm seeing I'm seeing heads in the back, not yes.

So that would be six behavioral health folks.

How many people do we have today at New Beginnings?

And if you want, you could just pull another chair up versus the back and forth.

We we have our allocation is six, and that is what we have we just hired.

So we were down one staff, we just hired a staff.

So right now we technically have six, but one is out on extended leave.

So so oh one is out on extended leave.

Yes.

So on the books you have six, but you really only have four, and a fifth one is coming on board.

Right.

That's right.

Okay.

So now walk me through.

If a unit doesn't have a behavioral tech, I imagine then that means one of you or someone is having to do double duty running back and forth between two units.

Yes, that is right.

Okay.

So we need at least two YDRs per unit.

Let's focus on New Beginnings.

Two YDRs, ideally a behavioral tech, ideally one JJIC.

And right now, remind me of the YDR count at New Beginnings.

I know we talked about this before, but do you have twelve?

Oh, yes.

In terms of we have far more than twelve.

We need two at any given time.

The two YDRs that we need on yes.

Yes, okay.

So that's fully staffed.

Yes, YDR vacancies.

There's only six, I think I would.

Agency wide.

Agency-wide.

Understood.

So that is largely taken care of.

The behavioral tech, it sounds like we need one behavioral tech.

The mental health clinician, yeah.

The behavioral health clinician.

And there's roughly 10 JJIC.

We're talking about an ideal world.

Well, that that was ideal.

I think we could we could work with less.

Yes.

We could have one JJIC for every 10 units.

Let's say the agency was fully staffed with all these people.

What should what would be different than what is happening now?

So the behavioral text, I'm clear, you wouldn't have people trying to play double duty between units.

What else would be different?

Well, I think when we when we look at the the JJICs, um, you know, whenever we have a program, they have to maneuver things and get them there.

If we have, like, for instance, we're doing the sleep research.

Um, when we need to have kids meet with those um researchers, uh, they have to organize that.

Um they organize um things like visitation.

Um so it it there are slowdowns, and the the way that we work around that is when you know other people have to step in and do those things.

So some things behavioral health steps in and says okay, we're gonna push this forward, even though that's really not our responsibility, or YDRs are assigned to do things, and so it it would be.

Operations would improve, and I would imagine these plans that people are saying they don't see, although they're being created, and we're gonna review some, but I would imagine there would be less discrepancies about the plans because you would have more eyes and ears and people focused on the young people on the units to say where is little Johnny's plan, or this kid is supposed to go to this activity, and I we have capacity to get them there.

So what I'm getting at is um a lot of the challenges that we routinely hear, it may be connected to staffing.

And give us either operation.

Yes.

Yes.

And it uh I know there was an investment, significant investment in overtime, and I get why.

But if we address the parental, not parental, but the pay leave aspect of things, that's gonna take time to play out versus overtime.

Would it not be more advantageous to also invest in F FTEs so that we can more fully staff the agency long term?

Absolutely.

When you think about overtime and how you drive down overtime, additional staff would be a solution I would always uh look at.

Understood.

Okay.

Um I want to come to room confinement.

So that's come up several times.

And I know we've talked about this.

This has been something you've committed to working on and improving.

Um in the oversight hearing in February, you said, Director, uh, that the agency was in the process of updating its confinement tracking system.

We heard testimony earlier that uh the witness was not aware if they are being uh updated tracking system.

So if you can just share where we are with that, although we did hear testimony that there has been a shift in confinement practices, and if you could talk about that also.

Yes.

So um as as was mentioned, we discontinued the use of uh you know putting kids in their rooms during shift change.

And so Ms.

Lyles uh implemented that fairly quickly.

Um it does have some logistical challenges for for our staff, but I think it is the right move.

We're very uh supportive of that change and we'll continue with that.

Um in terms of the.

Sorry if I could jump in.

Uh can you elaborate there?

Why do you think it's the right move?

Because we shouldn't put kids in their rooms unless we need to.

Okay.

For a safety reason.

I agree with you.

I just wanted I wanted you know, I didn't want to assume why you thought it was a good idea, but yeah.

Uh are you seeing a decline in incidence as a result?

Uh we heard testimony from a YDR that even though it's beneficial, it's stressful for the staff.

So, how are these new practices playing out?

I think it's it's a it's a change in practice.

It's a long-standing practice that the agencies had, and so everybody is uncomfortable when we make those kinds of changes.

And um, in that particular staff, when you know, before we rolled out the change, we did meet with our team and I did participate on some of those meetings, uh, because we don't want to just explain that this is going to happen, we want to explain why it's going to happen.

And um he and I had a conversation, of course, it was with everybody else that was in the room with us uh about you know that you know number one, it's the law.

Uh but uh more importantly, uh it doesn't benefit our kids to be putting them in their rooms.

I think from their perspective, uh they thought, well, you know, everybody needs to get a break, everybody needs to have some time where they're not worried about something happening.

Um, but uh I don't think that there's any uh any kind of like scientific evidence that that's true.

I think that's just a perception that some of our staff have.

And so we had to work through that process and explain why it's better to do it this way.

Yeah.

Um and they're they'll they're coming around, they will come around, and if they don't, we'll you know, measures to ensure it in your pre-response, you mentioned that the agency needs two more months to bring the tracking system online, so that would put us in July.

Um, and what steps are being taken to get us to that tracking system?

So we we have uh worked with our uh case management system to develop that automated report, but I will tell you that we are tracking the data now.

It's just tracked in a um spreadsheet.

Um so even though we don't have the automated system up and running, we're tracking that data and we will be able to report that data.

And once you have this tracking system, will that where will that information live?

We'll live in in our case management system in FamCare.

Okay.

Will that be shared publicly in terms of confinement, room confinement data?

Well, we'll be reporting it publicly, yes.

Where?

Um I believe the statute requires an annual report.

Okay.

But the data that you are uh willingly sharing on your website, is there any plan or thought to include it there?

I mean in like real time, yeah.

Uh I don't believe that we have a plan in place to do that in real time.

Okay.

Um if possible, I think that would be um a notch your belt.

Um but the most important thing is that the agency come into compliance and producing that report and make continue to make progress.

Um the our committee continues to receive reports that the agency continues to split to use split floor time, which is a process by which some youth get to be out on the unit while other youth are in their sales or in their rooms.

Um is the agency including split time or split floor time in its room confinement data?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Was this Ms.

Lyles' idea?

What's that?

The the room confinement shift.

And it's fine.

Maybe that's not the same.

It's not about question, but I just wanted to pinpoint.

Well, let me ask that differently.

What was the motivation for this shift?

So, you know, I I'll just tell you that when when I first started and I uh was touring, I believe it was at YSC, uh, I saw everybody going into their room, and it just happened to be that I was there around uh shift change and I asked the then um security chief why they were doing that.

He says, well, this is how we've always done it.

And I had uh told him, Well, we're not gonna do it that way, and I ordered them to immediately stop doing it, and we had a little bit of a revolt.

Um, and I think this was before Ms.

Lyles um was on board.

And um we had a number of challenges with security, and so I backed off of it to allow us a little bit of breathing room with our staff to work on some of those other bigger issues.

Uh not that this isn't a big issue, but it it was uh becoming a a challenge.

Um when Ms.

Kreider testified at our uh I guess separately from our oversight hearing, but we had a little bit of time.

Um immediately looked at the statute and realized, oh, that's actually not just a practice that I want, it's a requirement in law.

And so I contacted Ms.

Lyles and we discussed it and um developed a plan to to address it.

Um, you know, again, I think give credit where credit is due.

There is a lot of work to do, but I think at a number of areas the agency is trying to move in the right direction, and I give the team a lot of credit for that.

Um you all get beat up a lot.

And I hear you all may have gotten beat up today while I stepped out, but uh gently.

Uh I I appreciate the work and we're gonna continue working more urgently to get some of these systems in place.

The annual report that the agency is currently not in compliance with, when will we expect that first report?

So we reported the data in our response.

Um we can you know put that into a uh into some kind of other report form, but that is all the information that we have.

Okay.

Um I think to satisfy the reporting requirement, there would need to be a formal submission uh from the agency and we can work with you all on that.

If the system is going to be up and running by July, I would say ideally by the end of this fiscal year, September, we should aim to have that first report, which would be the data, but I would imagine also an explanation and contextualization of the data for people receiving that report.

Other agencies have, you know, uh it oftentimes comes from the mayor to the council, and then it's it lives in limbs, uh, our data system so that people have access to it, should they be interested.

We can talk more about that.

We'll definitely follow up and we'll do that formal process.

Uh I wanted to switch gears to the juvenile curfew enforcement uh since the beginning of the year.

How many juveniles have been brought to YSC for curfew violations?

Since the beginning of the year, for January 1 of this year.

I'll have to look at our our data sheet, but I think it's around 60, 65.

Um I've been keeping a running total uh which is around 300 since we in uh began the whole curfew process.

So about 65 roughly, and if you can follow up with a specific number.

Um yeah, we could probably get it while we're how many as well as how many of those young people are soon after released versus hailed.

It is my understanding that the process is that they stay at YSC, and if for an extended period of time you're not able to reach the parent, at some point in the morning there's a transfer of jurisdiction to CFSA.

Yeah, that's correct.

So when they come in, if they're if they're brought into YSC, uh the the whole, if you want me to run, I can run through the whole process.

They will go through intake.

Uh we will do a health check, so a nurse will uh examine the young person.

Um we're also be contacting CFSA initially before we make any outreach to parents to make sure that there isn't any custody orders or um if they've been removed from their home for any abuse or neglect that we make sure we have the right people.

Um we offer them a shower, clean clothes, and then we immediately move them into our non-secure side, which is right across from Mama Joe's office.

Yep.

And um we have COTS there, games, we provide snacks, and we contact their parents.

And for most kids, their parents will come and pick them up, but if we can't find anyone to pick them up, CFSA will take custody of them.

In the morning, I want to say it's around 6 a.m.

if I'm not mistaken.

I believe it's it believe it is 6 a.m.

And it's my understanding.

I want to say only a handful of young people have had to have that transfer.

It three, I think was the number, or maybe it was six.

It's a small number of young people that have been transferred to CFSA.

We'll have to you know check on our on the data, but yeah, I believe we we can we'll have that number in the most of the time parents pick up their kids.

Uh do the youth who are at YSC for curfew violation interact at all with other delinquent youth in the secure side.

I'm sorry.

Um I I got updated numbers.

It's 47 for the fiscal year and 18 since January.

Got it.

If we're looking at the calendar year.

And I think the number again that we received from CFSA is that there were three that were transferred from D R S to CFSA.

But give us your number uh so we can just cross-reference that.

Okay.

Um, sorry, you're back.

When a young person is brought in for curfew, do they co-mingle with uh I don't want to say detain youth on the secure side?

They don't go to the secure side.

So the only time that they may possibly be uh in contact with anyone is when they are brought in to intake to have that medical exam.

But the medical exam is gonna be in a private room.

Is there any um Ms.

Lyles, any opportunity for mixture there?

No.

There's no opportunity for mixture.

We make sure that no other kids are on the floor in the event that they are seeing medical and they're in a room with the medical professional.

When you follow up, if you can give the average length of time the young people are spending at YSC if you have that information.

Um obviously all of this is important as we're talking about youth curfews and what to do and etc.

I don't believe we have the the number of hours on every kid.

We uh, I mean, do you keep a log of source to say this kid comes in at 9 p.m.

they are checked out at 2 a.m.?

I don't think that we're logging the time.

Um we're logging, you know, the the day that they come in, um custody issues, did CFSA you know need to be contacted?

Um I'd have to look at all the stuff that we're we're keeping, but I don't believe that we're keeping the actual and what happens if it's uh young person not residing in the district.

So let's say uh kid from Maryland, they are brought into YSC.

Has that happened?

And if so, what is the protocol there?

Are you aware of any?

There has not been any from another jurisdiction since I've been there, but the process would still remain the same.

We would notify uh CPS and Merlin of the youth being there, but they would still remain on the non-secure side until they were picked up.

And and I'm sorry, Mr.

Chairperson, I I was just advised we are logging the time so we can uh but we don't have an average length of time, we'd have to calculate that.

Okay, we do have the time they come in and the time they leave.

And then does D Ware S transport the youth?

Uh if a parent says, Hey, I can't get over there, but can you bring them to me?

I don't believe we transport the youth.

Okay.

What about the transfer to CFSA?

How is that happening?

They come to pick up CFSA comes to pick up the young persons.

And and Chair personally, the number that we have for the fiscal year, and maybe they're counting on a different on calendar year, but fiscal year it was nine that have been transferred to CFSA.

For the fiscal year.

Yeah, I think the three was this year.

Maybe that was but maybe I have that wrong.

But um I know it was a small number.

Okay.

Let's go to grants.

During last year's budget, the committee funded two grant pilot programs.

One program was a pre-apprentip grant pilot and focused on preparing youth to get work workforce apprenticeships.

The other was a youth recidivism grant pilot that focused on prev preventing recidivism through robust re-entry services.

Uh in response to your pre-hearing question 19, the agency reported that it currently has one active grant for the pre-apprentipilot, the youth arbicultural career experience through the Green Futures boot camp.

Um, so if you could just speak about this program, why was it selected?

How does it meet the goals of that intended grant?

So that particular grant, it went through a full solicitation process, and based on the proposals that were submitted, it was evaluated by a panel and after ranking the panel identified that that would meet the needs of the youth for the program that we needed as a workforce development program at uh New Beginnings.

And what is the program?

Um it teaches trades and technical skills and landscaping, arbitrar, our borough culture, um, and different trades with the federal aviation administration as well.

And it the purpose is to connect youth with job opportunities when they transition back into the community, and that particular organization has a great deal of partnerships and have already started connecting with youth to give them those job opportunities as they're transitioning back into the communities.

And how long is that program in partnership with the agency?

To the end of the fiscal year?

So through September, how many young people are participating in the 15.

15.

And the goal, I'm assuming these are 15 young people planning to exit new beginnings, and you all are working to try to connect them to opportunities.

Correct.

Would you say that this uh grant has been beneficial?

For sure.

I would say it has been beneficial.

Um they're also doing I see head nods.

Anybody else want to elaborate on that?

So if we're thinking about, hey, should we put more money towards something like this?

Like it's this.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Is it something we should be looking to have more programs versus just one?

Correct.

Um and we're tying those workforce outcomes into the grant uh the R phase that we're writing so that we can have those outcomes.

You say RFAs, that's the re-entry plan.

No, no, no, it's the request for application.

So when we release them as grants, we are making sure to incorporate um those outcomes that we're hoping to see the connection to the partnerships as the youth are transitioning into the community.

So those are outcomes that are tracking and the grantees have to meet.

What are the age ranges of the 15 participating youth?

Do we know that?

I believe it's 14 to 17.

Uh let me let me get it back to you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Because that's something we should also look at services programs, outlets for different age groups, different interests.

Uh, that is certainly something we're interested in, but I'm glad to hear that generally the program has been successful and it's up and running.

Um did the agency allocate the full funding of 350,000 to this program.

Uh, based on the budget that was submitted, it was 250.

250.

So what about the remaining?

Um, the remaining the agency is using to support the pressures that we have.

So the agency swiped 100,000.

Uh no, no, no.

No, that one was only 300,000.

It uh I have 350.

It was 300,000.

300.

So you swiped 50,000, I'm sorry.

Um but we will look to see how we can continue to support this, as I think those pipeline programs are very important.

Um applied for the grant?

Um, do you know that?

I don't know that offhand, but I can get that for you.

If you can that would be helpful.

And then there was another grant uh issued for re-entry support.

And so where are we with that?

I guess so that particular grant, so based on some of the mid-year reductions.

It was 350 brother.

Okay.

So there were a the process of mid-year reductions occurred, and so those the additional pilot cannot continue because we had to stop some of those additional services so that we can make sure we're supporting some of the pressures that we had, for example, in residential.

So mid-year.

So you're saying that's when the mayor paused spending.

Correct.

So one grant moved forward, but the other, or is just when the timing hit.

It was a lot about the timing, and then we also had in our credible messenger program, we um fortunate we had a an early termination of a program, and so we were able to reallocate those funds to make sure that the workforce development went forward because we've we value that program.

We thought it was important.

We had already gone through the solicitation process.

What is that program?

It the abor culture that we were just talking about.

So we wanted to make sure that that program continued because we had completed the evaluation, the solicitation and the selection process, so we were able to utilize the funds that we realized from the early termination of the credible messenger program, so that could continue while we had to use some of the other funds that were outlined for the pilot to support the pressures.

Okay, it seems to me that um respectfully.

I don't know if I fully buy that, but I hear you.

Uh, but it seems to me that the agency could be doing more around re-entry.

So I know you've stood up a team, it doesn't seem like you fully got there.

We gave you a grant to support re-entry and you didn't utilize it because let's say the mayor halted spending.

Um is this an area where we should look again to invest in?

And if so, why?

If not, why not?

So let me also just say that we did partner with two community organizations on a re-entry grant through the Department of Justice that we're awaiting to hear back from.

Um I remember that we we we are trying to make it work even though the funding isn't always where we'd like it to be and try to find solutions that can uh continue down that path.

I do think that re-entry is important.

Uh and so, but as a grant, I I'm asking for guidance.

So, should we like focus on FTEs?

Should we uh try to identify more grant funding?

Like what how do we support you all with re-entry?

I think that we have what we need to do good re-entry work.

What we need to do is work that process and develop those procedures.

I think when we when I think of what's deficient for re-entry, um, I'm thinking more about what's what's in available in the community.

So the the community-based services for behavioral health sometimes are not you know as robust as we'd like to see.

Um I know some of our behavioral health team that works with our kids in the community will tell us, well, this one's good, but that one's not, but that's not what's close to our our young people.

Um I think that's where the the real need is.

Understood.

Um I want to turn to credible messengers.

Um, as you know, the credible messengers program was cut by 4.37 million dollars by the executive in this proposed budget.

Uh I don't need to tell you all as I've heard from you all that credible messengers play a very critical role.

We've heard that also from the folks testifying.

Um how many individuals are impacted by this cut of 4.37 million?

Do we know that number?

We're hoping that that we can restore that funding.

And uh, no, I that's my hope too.

I mean, four million dollars is a lot of money, but how many people are we talking about impacted?

If we don't restore that funding, so all of our committed population in total, in addition to we have two facilities, we have a facility-based provider who is also providing credible messenger services in YSC and at New Beginnings.

So, and if we look at our daily population, wiped out, and how many credible messengers are provided from that one provider?

From the facility-based provider?

Yes.

I think we have five total.

Five total, yes, five total providers.

One, no, no, five staff.

Five credible, I'm sorry.

Yeah, five new beginnings.

One credible messenger provider for both facilities, and then we also have four credible messenger providers in the community.

Right.

But for the one provider at YC and in New Beginnings, there's five individuals.

Credible messengers, correct on that one provider team.

Correct.

And they also have administrative stab as well.

Right.

So not restoring that cut would impact the entire implementation of the credible messenger program.

In addition, the credible messenger programs have family engagement mentors.

So this is a rhetorical question.

I'm not gonna ask you all to actually answer this, but it would it makes me wonder why on earth would the executive cut this if it's so valuable, if it's so essential to the support of our young people.

Don't answer that, Director.

Uh but it's kind of maddening.

It um and we will do what we can, but with everything cut across the government, it becomes increasingly hard.

So I just want to be clear-eyed, we will do what we can to restore this.

I'm not confident we can restore all of it.

We will try.

This perpetuates harm, and I'll get off my soapbox.

But what I'm hearing from you is that the credible messengers at D Raz play a vital role currently working with the young people.

Understood.

Yes.

I would um add to that as well.

Oh, yeah.

Voice from the sky.

Yes.

I'll add that with that the real cut number is about 4.5 million for a credible messenger.

That 4.3 represents, you know, some PS costs, um, Ms.

Gilliard mentioned earlier.

So those are just some some shifts.

So the real um cut to the credible messenger for in that maintenance in person of um account line is 4.5 million from a budget standpoint as opposed to 4.3.

What you're seeing is just it says 4.3 million because it's taken to account the shifts in the PS part of that budget as well.

I hear that, but we're gonna have to go by the numbers in the budget book.