'They have to do better' | Mother, judges say system is failing DC kids who need mental health treatment

WASHINGTON — District leaders say they want to fix DC’s juvenile crime problem. But a WUSA9 investigation reveals the city is falling way behind getting those young offenders the mental health services they need – even when ordered to do so by the courts.

Since December, one District mother has been begging the city’s juvenile justice system to do more to help her 15-year-old son “Aaron” – ever since she watched NEST camera footage of him burglarizing their own home. WUSA9 is identifying the youth under a pseudonym because he has been charged as a minor.

Aaron was arrested after the break-in. It was his second time in handcuffs in six months. His mom told WUSA9 she watched on helplessly, feeling she was losing all control over the teen as he repeatedly violated the terms of his court-ordered release.

“It’s just so frustrating,” she said. “It’s so frustrating. It’s very emotional.”

In March, Aaron was convicted of the break-in and committed to the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) for 18 months. The judge ordered the agency to place him in a psychiatric residential treatment facility, or PRTF, after a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation found he suffered from disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD). It’s a condition that can cause children and adolescents to suffer chronic irritability and severe temper outbursts.   

The evaluator recommended Aaron be placed in a PRTF with “a strong behavioral and trauma focus.” That’s what the judge ordered in March. But, for months, Aaron sat at the overcrowded Youth Services Center, D.C.’s juvenile jail, while he and his mother waited for him to be transferred.

A DYRS spokeswoman told WUSA9 that Aaron is one of five juveniles who have been ordered placed in a PRTF who are currently in limbo in DYRS custody. Because there is no PRTF in D.C., the agency must send the teens’ profiles out around the country to try to find a spot for them – oftentimes in facilities as far as Georgia or Florida. The agency said most of the teens awaiting place have been at YSC an average of three months, although one teen has spent eight months at the juvenile lockdown facility while awaiting transfer. While at YSC, none of the teens are getting the mental health treatment they need.

The delay has left Aaron, and his mother, feeling hopeless.

“I don’t even have words for it at this point,” she said. “One hundred percent broken.”

'We need some help'

In June, WUSA9 was granted rare access to D.C. Family Court to view firsthand the issues straining the system. Over the course of three days, digital investigative reporter Jordan Fischer sat in on nearly 60 juvenile hearings. WUSA9 was granted access on the condition that it agree not to report anything that would identify the juveniles or their family members.

In hearing after hearing, judges found themselves stymied by a delay in getting back psychiatric evaluations from the Department of Behavioral Health – a necessary step for DYRS to develop a treatment plan for juveniles. In one day alone, WUSA9 witnessed three juvenile plea hearings that had to be continued because, without a psychiatric evaluation completed, the presiding judge said they couldn’t be sure the juvenile would get the help they need.

“I can tell you an inpatient, detained case can’t get an appointment scheduled,” Judge James Crowell told one juvenile’s lawyer.

Crowell said historically the reports have been returned to the court within 30 days of being ordered. But in many of the cases WUSA9 watched, the evaluation had been pending for months.

“Something’s amiss,” Crowell said.

Crowell, along with Judge Kendra Briggs, is one of just two calendar judges who hear all of the juvenile criminal cases filed in D.C. Family Court. A single magistrate judge, Judge Dorsey Jones, handles the initial hearings and detention requests for all juveniles arrested in the District. Over the three days WUSA9 was in family court, 23 juveniles appeared before Jones.

Over the past year, the District has seen a juvenile crime spike that has outpaced the rest of the nation. Intake data from DYRS shows D.C. has average six new juvenile admissions to the facility every day for most of 2024. The cumulative effect is a consistent stream of new cases constantly pouring on top of a juvenile caseload judges increasingly aren’t able to clear because they’re waiting for critical psychiatric evaluations.

“We’re well north of 600 cases, and that was just May when that number was set,” Crowell told one defense attorney. “We need some help.”

According to numbers provided by D.C. Superior Court, as of mid-June, Briggs had more than 580 juvenile criminal cases on her docket. Crowell had 700.

At the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH), which conducts all of the juvenile psychiatric evaluations ordered by the court, the crush of juvenile cases has workers struggling to keep up. Numbers provided to WUSA9 by DBH show Family Court-ordered juvenile evaluations had been on a downward trend for years prior to the pandemic. In fiscal year 2018, DBH completed 55 juvenile psychiatric evaluations ordered by the court. In 2019, they completed just 37.

Between October, when the fiscal year began, and June 27, judges have ordered 98 psychiatric evaluations for juveniles – of which DBH has completed less than half. As of the end of June, 42 evaluations were still waiting completion. Each represents a juvenile whose case can’t move forward – and who can’t begin receiving the mental health treatment they need – until judges have the evaluations in hand.

A DBH spokeswoman acknowledged the agency has seen an influx of evaluation orders since the pandemic, and said they work to “ensure that an evaluation is completed as soon as possible so every child can get treatment and support when needed.”

For Aaron’s mother, the frustration with her son’s months-long wait for help has boiled over.

“I was told he should be placed by the end of March, early to mid-April,” she said. “That didn’t happen.”

DYRS told Aaron’s mother he’s finally been approved for placement at the Brooksville Youth Academy, a PRTF outside of Tampa, Florida. But to date, he still hasn’t been transferred outside of D.C. His mother said he was recently moved to the New Beginnings Youth Development Center in Laurel – without any notification, she said, from DYRS. She told WUSA9 if she had the opportunity to speak to D.C.’s leaders, she’d have a simple message for them.

“They have to do better,” she said. “I mean, it’s simple as that. All of the facts and evidence is right before you. You have to take action. You have to do better.”