7/29/2019 IRE Journal - Youthlink
1/2THE IRE JOURN6
extra supervision was requested for one yoman with an extensive
history of gun charThe request was denied.
One nonprot received more than $500,in DC YouthLink
expenditures, but was equately documenting only 15 percent owork
for the program, records showed. top mentoring provider was
spending prechours playing video games with youths taking them to
Burger King. A leading tutoprovider lacked something as basic as
hav
qualied teachers, and one of its high-lestaffers was red after
allegedly having sex wa student. These were just some of our
ndi
HowweinvestigatedWe had signicant obstacles to overcome.
city agency (DYRS) had a history of hidinghind juvenile
condentiality laws. We didnanything fancy to get around this. It
came doto developing a lot of sources. We started wactivists and
community groups that worwith the kids, asking what they thought
Dwas doing right and what it wasnt. Many
Around suppertime last summer, Idrove an old white Ford Focus
acrossthe Anacostia River. It was just a stones
throw from Washington, D.C.s monuments andmemorials but couldnt
have been more differ-ent. The air smelled like burning rubber.
Insectsbuzzed noisily through overgrown weeds. Thebuildings were
worn down.
I pulled around the back of a small white two-story home. A new
wooden ramp stuck out from
the door, awkwardly distinct from the old struc-ture it led to.
An abandoned car sat in the back ofthe dirt driveway.
Inside, 17-year-old Maurices wheelchairhauntingly occupied a
dark corner. His 40-year-old mother, Latonia, sat at her dining
room tablein a red polka-dot shirt. That day her work col-leagues
had said she looked like Betty Boop. Shehad just cleaned the entire
ground oor to pre-pare for a television interview.
I felt a little embarrassed as an inexperienced26-year-old. I
had no photographer, lightingcrew, producer or editor. I was it. So
I lugged my
tripod, camera and microphone inside (sweatingprofusely),
focused the picture, hit record andtook my seat. Latonia looked
exasperated. Sheinhaled deeply and began her story.
Maurice always loved to steal cars, she said.Her friends were
constantly calling her. Hesdriving a vanjust zoomed past me, almost
hitsomebody!
Eventually, he was arrested and became a wardof the citys
Department of Youth RehabilitationServices (DYRS). The agency
enrolled him inDC YouthLink, a new program designed to turnyoung
offenders around without locking themup. While living at home,
Maurice was promised
a mentor, tutor and behavioral health services,but only the
mentor ever came by. Meanwhile,he continued to steal cars. His
mother begged thecity to lock him up, but no one listened.
Maurices story was one of hundreds. I wasso angered by what I
kept hearing that I workedfor eight months to expose it. I did much
of thereporting on my own time while turning severaldaily stories a
week for the evening newscast.
WhatwefoundIts important to understand that the idea be-
hind DC YouthLink was a good one. Research
has shown that treating young offenders in thecommunity with
mentoring, tutoring and otherservices is far more effective (and
less expen-sive) than incarceration. But if youre going torelease
dangerous teens into the community, ithas to be done right. In this
case, the programwas mismanaged and abused. The city let theteens
return to their neighborhoods and thendidnt provide many with
support, our inves-tigation found. In the time that followed,
theytook the lives of others and themselves.
A third of the programs participants wererearrested over just
six months. From 2010to 2011 (our report aired in 2012), 15
werecharged with murder and 15 more were killed.Moreover, of the
more than 750 youths servedby the program, the city could point to
only 13who graduated from high school.
In addition to the poor outcomes, we shineda light on what went
wrong. An internal letterrevealed almost 30 percent of youths west
ofthe river had no services in place whatsoeverin 2011. Of those
who did get services, manyfaced shortages. Condential records
showed
Bad
Alternative
D.C. teen criminals avoid jail;
program fails to rehabilitate them
By Ben Eisler
7/29/2019 IRE Journal - Youthlink
2/2SUMMER 2013
the problem was DC YouthLink, but none knewjust how bad things
were.
Those sources introduced us to others, un-til eventually we had
deep contacts at variousnonprot service providers and DYRS. We got
toknow a lot of parents and youths, engaged theDYRS union and tried
to get as much as possibleout of the agencys press ofce. Our
sources gaveus condential emails, youth rosters and invoices.They
were also able to conrm (and reconrm)
various details that we could not get documen-tation for. It was
one of these sources who con-nected me with Maurice and his
mother.
This may seem obvious, but I cant emphasizeenough how important
it is for your sources tounderstand why you do what you do. I
explainedto almost everyone I spoke to that my goal wasto do a
balanced story that benetted the pub-lic. I wanted to explore what
was working andwhat wasnt, and bring about real change thatimproved
things for people. Thats the only rea-son I do what I do, and once
they understoodthat, they were innitely more willing to help.
Its also worth noting that the parents are cru-cial to reporting
personal stories. Due to con-dentiality laws, they and the youths
are the onlyones legally able to share their experiences. Findthem
through the nonprots working with themand government sources. If
you know theyvebeen through a lot, consider bringing them ow-ers
(if they wont talk to you, leave them at theirdoor). Works like a
charm.
In addition to sourcing, we led an extensiveFOIA request. After
the deadline passed, we bad-gered DYRS every few days until they
responded.We also sent a threatening legal letter. The FOIAprovided
us with inspection reports and spending
gures that conrmed much of what we had beenhearing from sources.
Our request was broad buttargeted. We had our sources identify
suspiciousnonprots and then asked for all documents thatshowed any
deciency or potential deciencyon the part of those groups. My
apartment wasburied by stacks of audits, quarterly and
annualreports, inspection reports and budgets. Much ofit was
useless, but I annotated and cataloged ev-erything in case it might
come in handy.
The other challenge was that our story target-ed a number of
ex-cons who now headed non-prots but still associated with violent
groups.
I found myself alone in high-crime neighbor-hoods, face to face
with a teen offender or theteens family. My wife scolded me on
multipleoccasions for going at night. Always go withsomeone else if
you can.
This area is really ripe for investigative work inother cities.
It involves not just public money butpublic safety of the teens as
well as all otherresidents. The stakes are huge, and it is
extremelydifcult to rehabilitate these youths, so even
smallmistakes can become big problems. As a result,I got the
impression that many of those workingwith them have become cynical
and feel their ef-forts are futile, which adds to the
dysfunction.
ConfrontingthemayorThis story would not have been what it was
with-
out the guidance of my supervisors Bill Lord andDoug Culver and
the web layout by Justin Karp.
Our interest in the subject was sparked by re-ports in The
Washington Times about individualcrimes by these youths. Prior to
our report, DCYouthLink had gone entirely uncovered by themedia.
Shortly after we published it, DC Youth-Link assembled a new pool
of service providers,selected through a competitive process.
Previ-ously, there was no such thing there werenteven contracts.
There was also an ofce estab-
lished to advocate for parents. City council andgovernment
agency sources said the changeswere a direct result of our
work.
Over the course of our reporting, D.C. MayorVincent Gray and
DYRS Director Neil Stanleyrepeatedly refused our interview
requests. Soone summer morning, we went to the mayorsweekly press
brieng. The focus was taxis notremotely related to DYRS but Gray
knew wewere coming, so he asked Stanley to attend. Hekept us
waiting until the end, calling on everyother reporter with a hand
raised rst. My heartwas racing. It wasnt that I hadnt prepared Ihad
lived and breathed this material for eight
months. No one knew it better. I just hate cfrontations.
I told the mayor that DYRS had releahundreds of its youths into
the community not supported many of them at all, and dozwere killed
or charged with murder. Whasked for his response, he called Stanley
topodium. Stanley claimed they had vastly proved the program and as
a result, no par
pants were victims or suspects in a homicin 2012.
I knew that to provide the additional osight Stanley was
touting, the city hired a mer nonprot director who himself had
baccused of misusing city funds, despite the that the investigation
into those allegations never completed. I posed this point
duringpress brieng.
The mayor pulled Stanley from the podand told me that they would
be happy for mprovide additional information that would hthem
improve the program.
After the press conference, the mayor cafor an investigation by
the attorney general misspent funds. Unfortunately for Maurice many
others, it was too late. The city never lochim up or gave him the
support it promised. Onight he was riding in the back of a stolen
when someone started shooting. He took a buto the spine, and will
never walk again.
Ben Eisler is a former reporter, photographer and e
for WJLA-Washington, D.C. He is now a health care
ducer for CBS This Morning.
To view this story, visit http://wj.la/RuHZZ8.
Thecitylettheteens
returntotheirneighborhoods
andthendidntprovide
manywithsupport,our
investigationfound.
Latonia Halls son, a teen offender, was enrolled in the DC
YouthLink program. It gave him little support, ahe continued to
steal cars.
