Youth Services Agency Reforms

Last December, I appointed a team led by City Administrator Robert Bobb and Interim Youth Services Administration Administrator Marceline Alexander to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the Youth Services Administration.

In January, the Superior Court held hearings to determine whether the agency should be placed in transitional receivership based on a motion filed by the Jerry M. plaintiffs. In April, the Court issued an order finding the District in contempt of certain provisions of the Consent Decree.

In May, I announced that the District had entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Jerry M. plaintiffs to retain Grace Lopes to serve as a Special Arbiter to assist and supervise the parties in the negotiation and implementation of a work plan.

On September 15, I was pleased to announce that the parties have negotiated and are implementing the first installment of that work plan, which covers interim priority environmental health, safety and security issues, and calls for the creation of a cabinet-level Youth Services Agency.

The work plan, which was filed today with the Court for its approval, sets 11 goals and provides specific implementation steps and deadlines. A few highlights of the work plan are:

• The creation of a cabinet-level agency to oversee juvenile justice issues
  
  
• An intensive recruitment and outreach plan to attract an administrator to manage the agency
  
  
• Additional staffing of youth correctional officers during the midnight shift to better oversee our youth at Oak Hill and a staffing study by juvenile justice experts to make sure that YSA has the youth correctional officers it needs to do the job
  
  
• Two initiatives to work with our Department of Mental Health to provide quality mental health services to our youth

There is more to come. The parties are scheduled to provide the balance of the work plan to the Court for its approval on November 15.

District Activities

Mayor Williams announces the return of Major League Baseball to the nation's capital at a news conference Wednesday, September 29. The Montreal Expos will relocate to the District in time for the season opener next spring. The Washington Senators played their last game in the District September 30, 1971—33 years ago!	Mayor Williams held a welcome reception for Dr. Clifford B. Janey, the new Superintendent of DC Public Schools at the Sumner School in NW. Pictured with the Mayor and Dr. Janey are School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Council Chairman Linda Cropp and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Mayor Williams joined Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Chief Charles Ramsey of MPD and Dr. Clifford B. Janey for a September 28 Capitol Hill news conference. The group asked Congress not to pass legislation to repeal the District's gun laws.