(Washington Post) — Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray can only hope that better times are ahead for the District’s juvenile justice agency. For nearly a year, he has watched from his seat on the City Council as one crisis after another has buffeted the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. At least a dozen wards under its care have been charged with murder this year, according to the agency. At least 10 others have been homicide victims. The number of juveniles placed with the department continues to rise. New Beginnings, a facility that opened last year for long-term juvenile detainees, is overcrowded. The department’s relations with D.C. Superior Court and its juvenile probation unit are strained. With the resignation last week of yet another interim director, no fewer than four people may, by year’s end, have headed the agency since January.
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