Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Public Sector Gulags

New Beginnings Youth Development Center (Laurel MD)

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cum guzzler:
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Ursus:

--- Quote from: "blombrowski" ---Vincent Shrialdi who is the person responsible for overseeing the opening of the center, brought a panel of youth from said center to a meeting of the Coalition on the Ratification of the Convention of the Rights of the Child in D.C. a few years back. And he has overseen the downsizing of our juvenile justice system in New York City in his new role as the Commission of Probation in NYC. Generally speaking, given his career he's an odd person to have been responsible for opening a juvenile institution, as he is very much about non-institutional care.
--- End quote ---
Please correct me if I'm wrong: was Vincent Schiraldi the director of D.C.'s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services from 2005 to 2009/2010, at which point he left for the larger pastures of the Empire State?

I have to say, I don't know much about him, this really isn't my field of expertise, but somehow that whole saga reminds me just a little of Oliver Keller's attempt to turn Florida's legacy of brutal institutionalized care into something humaner and more community based back in the late 1960s. A lot of idealism and focus on a rehabilitative rather than a punitive approach, fighting an uphill battle against an entrenched old boy network, along with more than a few mistakes made along the way, some of which were probably unavoidable... Or, am I way off base and totally outta my league? :D

blombrowski:
Yep, your timeline regarding Schiraldi sounds about right.  I don't know if there's necessarily an "old boy" network to dismantle the attempts at reform in D.C.  But if you want to get a sense of the problems and the mentality of your average case worker in D.C. you can go back to the Jason Cherkis article in the Washington City Paper from about a year back.  

D.C. per capita probably has the fewest institutional youth beds anywhere in the country, which makes in particularly vulnerable to the entreats of RTC's who are willing to "take kids of their hands".

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