Things must be bad when D.C. Councilman Marion Barry, D-Ward 8, has had it up to there with the scandal-plagued Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Last month, Barry held up $1.5 million in funding after failing to receive performance data he requested in April when yet another DYRS ward escaped from the city’s New Beginnings Youth Development Center in Laurel.
Barry calls DYRS “one of the worst agencies in this city.” He should know.
Councilman David Catania, I-at large, introduced legislation to make DYRS more accountable after a 14-year-old ward with a long juvenile record was involved in the deadly South Capitol Street shootings in March.
For all the “rehabilitation” DYRS does, it should be called the Department of Youth Criminalization Services instead. This under-the-radar story explains why.
According to a DYRS spokesman, the agency is supposed to conduct background checks and home visits before releasing incarcerated youth to a temporary guardian, aka a “nonsecure environment.”
In the case of a convicted sex offender, “we would not release the young person to that environment unless we were assured that the adult no longer is living in that place or would have no contact with the young person.”
But DYRS apparently violated its own policy when it released 18-year-old Deandrew Hamlin into the custody of a convicted sex offender not once, but twice.
A DYRS ward with eight prior juvenile arrests and a history of escaping from group homes, Hamlin was caught joyriding in American University accounting professor Sue Ann Marcum’s Jeep hours after her bludgeoned body was found in her Bethesda home last October.
After crashing Marcum’s vehicle and fleeing on foot, Hamlin was arrested as a prime suspect in her murder and ordered held on a $1 million bond. But Montgomery County homicide investigators soon focused their attention on Marcum’s live-in boyfriend, concluding that Hamlin had nothing to do with her murder.
Hamling was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle and his bond was reduced to $50,000. In January he was released to the custody of Mahdi Shabazz, a Silver Spring man whom Hamlin’s attorney, Brian McDaniel, described as his guardian and “surrogate father.”
Less than a week later, Hamlin went missing from Shabazz’s home and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He soon wound up back in custody, and was again released to Shabazz’ supervision. After pleading guilty, he was eventually sentenced to a year on probation.
But Shabazz was hardly one to provide the proper guidance to a wayward youth. In November 2010 — while Hamlin was still in police custody — his guardian and surrogate father was in court himself — being convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense and possession of a firearm.
Shabazz’s name and photo were posted on public sex-offender registries run by the Department of Justice and the state of Maryland, and could easily have been found by DYRS employees if they were diligently doing their jobs. They weren’t.
Shabazz is also listed as executive director of the shadowy Helping Everyone Live Prosperous Foundation, a tax-exempt charity he runs out of a condo in Northeast that also hands out free condoms, according to the D.C. Health Department.
HELP’s self-described focus is “teen runaways and those who are aging out of the foster care system” — troubled throwaways just like Hamlin.
No telling how many other abused and neglected D.C. wards are being supervised by “guardians” who have criminal records themselves. Although judging by the agency’s recent track record, Hamlin’s case may be the rule rather than the exception.
Barry should continue to press for answers until this “School for Scandal” finally comes clean.
Editor’s note: Examiner interns Sarah Leitner, Tray Smith and Stephanie Wang contributed to this report.
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner’s local opinion editor.
