The outgoing head of the District’s juvenile justice agency’s commitment program has spoken out against the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services critiques, saying the pundits who attacked the agency’s reforms focused narrowly on cases and failed to see the big picture.
David Muhammad joined DYRS four years ago. He announced his resignation on July 19, the day Mayor Adrian Fenty fired the agency’s interim director Marc Schindler and replaced him with a member of Attorney General Peter Nickles staff. The move, to many DYRS insiders, was a signal that five years of reform efforts were coming to a close.
Muhammad, Schindler and the agency’s last full time director, Vincent Schiraldi, were part of a team that ended DYRS’ focus on incarcerating young criminals. Instead, they focused on rehabilitation. They built a modern facility to house the most troubled juvenile offenders, and an outplacement program meant to provide the life skills lesser offenders would need to survive on their own.
But to critics, the program failed, particularly as DYRS’ wards — more than 10 this year — were charged with murder, some in high profile cases such as the shooting death a District middle school principal. At least another six wards were killed this year.
In an editorial posted Saturday on New America Media, Muhammad defended the reforms and attacked his critics.
“We were constantly accused by a small vocal group of ‘coddling criminals’,” Muhammad writes. “Critics continually looked for evidence that the reforms were failing, seizing on exceptional cases to ‘prove’ their point. Though these cases sometimes had little to do with DYRS and were statistically insignificant, the critics tried to convince the public otherwise.”
Muhammad also blames politics:
“I leave Washington, D.C., happy and proud of the great work we did, though I am also concerned because there remains much work to do. But sometimes you only have the four- or eight-year cycle of a mayoral or gubernatorial administration to make lasting reforms.”
Muhammad’s last day on the job is Tuesday. He then heads to New York City, where he’ll be the deputy commissioner of probation.
