Juvenile homes’ hiring targeted

The group homes where the D.C. government houses juvenile delinquents have employed persons with criminal records ranging from burglary to murder, a report issued by the D.C. Office of the Inspector General concluded yesterday.

The report, issued by interim D.C. Inspector General Austin A. Andersen, also found that employees were hired without undergoing required drug tests and that there was a failure to track down youths who run away from the facilities.

The city’s Youth Services Administration (YSA) oversees 14 group homes that operate under city contract in the District and the Oak Hill Youth Center, the city’s youth detention facility. The inspections of the facilities were conducted earlier this year.

“Without adequate background checks on all employees who must routinely interact with youths, the [YSA] may unknowingly hire or have currently employed individuals with a history of violence, abuse or other criminal behavior,” the report says.

The report also revealed that city inspectors found trash-strewn facilities with numerous fire hazards and lax security.

The report is the second issued this year by the D.C. Office of the Inspector General raising questions about the operations of the YSA, which has been under a court-ordered reform plan since 1986. The first report focused on conditions at Oak Hill, and its findings prompted a congressional hearing in March.

City officials said yesterday that the latest report didn’t offer major surprises. Officials said they already had begun transforming the troubled agency, starting with a management overhaul this past winter. The overhaul included the hiring of lawyer Marceline D. Alexander as the interim director of the YSA.

“There were no surprises,” said Mark D. Back, special counsel for the YSA. “The things [the report] pointed out are things we came out here to fix.”

Mr. Back said the city recently enacted rules mandating heightened background checks for employees or city contractors who work with youth, including those at group homes.

“There were some employees who were dismissed,” he said, but he did not know how many.

Ed Reiskin, chief of staff for City Administrator Robert C. Bobb, said reforming the YSA is a top priority for city officials.

“They’ve been working to get licensing in place for the group homes and good contracts in place,” Mr. Reiskin said.

However, D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty, Ward 4 Democrat, said the report served as an indictment on how the city cares for troubled youth.

“The mayor’s performance as a manager of the Youth Services Administration has been nothing short of miserable,” he said.

One of the most troublesome findings in the report was that some employees at the group homes did not undergo criminal background checks.

When city inspectors reviewed employee files at several group homes, they found workers with criminal convictions, including murder, burglary and drug-related offenses. Some employees also never underwent sex-offender background checks, the report found.

City inspectors reviewed 17 employee files at random at several group homes. They found that four employees, or 23 percent of the sampling, had committed crimes.

The review of the YSA also faulted efforts to locate youths who run away from the group homes. In a letter to the D.C. Department of Human Services in August, Mr. Andersen wrote that 233 youths had run away, with 69 still missing at the time.

The runaways had been convicted of serious crimes, including assault on a police officer, armed robbery and murder, the report found. “Efforts to locate youths … have been minimal and ineffective,” Mr. Andersen wrote.