Serving ‘dead time’
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
Washington’s juvenile justice agency appeared to finally be reformed. After decades of court monitoring, a judge declared in late 2020 that the long-troubled Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services could return to the mayor’s control.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) promised “a focus on restorative justice, love, and empowerment” that would “serve and improve the lives of our young people, their families, and our entire community.”
Instead, progress at the agency – charged with setting serious and repeat teen offenders on a better path – unraveled as youth crime spiked, a Washington Post investigation found.
Today on the show, investigative reporter Nicole Dungca tells “Post Reports” co-host Elahe Izadi about some of the teens and children who spent months in a violent detention center as waits grew longer for rehabilitation programs.
Read more here. If you value this reporting, please subscribe to The Washington Post.
Today’s episode was produced by Peter Bresnan with help from Sean Carter, who also mixed the show. It was edited by Reena Flores. Thank you to Lisa Gartner and David Fallis.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Growing up in D.C., a young man were calling NH had heard about this detention center in the city. |
| 0:09.3 | It was a facility meant to detain young people charged with serious crimes. |
| 0:14.6 | When I was, like, going into high school, that's when I started hearing about it. |
| 0:17.8 | People at my school would be just coming from here or, like, people are just getting trouble |
| 0:22.3 | and just getting trouble. |
| 0:22.4 | But NH told my colleague Nicole Dunca, he never thought he would end up there. |
| 0:29.2 | I really didn't hear much about it for her. |
| 0:31.1 | I wasn't worried about why I see for it when I was in school. |
| 0:34.0 | It wasn't like on my mind at the time. |
| 0:35.5 | Oh, yeah, yeah. |
| 0:35.9 | I never even thought it was a real place. |
| 0:42.9 | NH says that in high school, he started hanging out with a group he called the wrong people. |
| 0:49.2 | In 2023, NH was arrested and charged in D.C. for the first time. |
| 1:01.3 | He was 16, and we should say we're identifying NH by his initials to keep his juvenile record confidential. |
| 1:06.2 | In 2024, NH was arrested again for carjacking. |
| 1:16.0 | After that, a judge committed NH to the custody of D.C.'s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, or DYRS. |
| 1:22.0 | NH was supposed to be placed in a rehabilitation program and get services like therapy. |
| 1:24.2 | So he started waiting. |
| 1:29.8 | DYRS is the Juvenile Justice Agency of the District of Columbia. |
| 1:36.5 | And basically their mission is to make sure that these teens, these children who might get arrested, |
| 1:43.8 | are put into programs, either secure programs or programs where they can live at home, |
| 1:45.7 | that will help rehabilitate them. |
... |
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