Youth Justice Project
A DC Youth Justice Coalition
Data

DC's juvenile legal system, in numbers.

DC's juvenile legal system runs on numbers that the city does not consistently publish, contextualize, or interpret in public. We publish them here, with their sources, so anyone in DC can see the system as it actually operates.

92.7%
rearrested · 47.6% reconvicted
of young people who completed a DYRS commitment in 2018 were rearrested during their commitment or within two years of completing it.
DC Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Juvenile Recidivism: A 2018 Cohort Analysis, August 2022, p.2.
Recidivism figures depend on the cohort and time window chosen, and DC agencies define those differently. We name both every time.
88%
of 2024, over capacity
The Youth Services Center, DC's 98-bed pre-adjudication detention facility, was over capacity for 88% of 2024, and exceeded capacity every day from April 22, 2025 forward.
Office of Councilmember Zachary Parker, C.A.R.E. for Youth Plan, Oct 6 2025; Council for Court Excellence, Committed Youth Awaiting Placement in the DC Youth Services Center, Nov 2025.
86%
Black youth · ≈52% of DC youth
of young people committed to DYRS in 2023 were Black males. Every young person held at the Youth Services Center on the May 2025 reporting date was a Black male. Black youth make up roughly 52% of DC's young people.
Council for Court Excellence, Committed Youth Awaiting Placement in the DC Youth Services Center, Nov 2025. Cross-referenced against DYRS Public Safety Indicators dashboard.
Across every dataset DC publishes, the system falls hardest on Black young people.
57.6%
chronically absent
of DC public high school students were chronically absent in school year 2024–25, meaning they missed at least 10% of enrolled school days.
DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), 2024–25 District of Columbia Attendance Report, Nov 30 2025.
3.16×
more likely
A DC public school student with an average number of unexcused absences is 3.16 times more likely to become involved in the juvenile justice system the following year than a student with no unexcused absences.
DC Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, A Study of the Root Causes of Juvenile Justice System Involvement, Dr. Kaitlyn Sill, Nov 2020.
82%
re-enrolled · vs ≈⅓ nationally
of young people eligible for Open City Advocates' education-stipend program re-enrolled in school after release in the most recent program year, compared to approximately one-third of young people nationally returning from residential placement.
Open City Advocates, Real Money, Real Change, Oct 2025; U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Model Programs Guide literature review, Jan 2019.
Also worth seeing

Three more numbers behind the system.

34.4/mo
youth-on-youth assaults at the Youth Services Center in 2025, up from 19.4 per month in 2023.
Council for Court Excellence, Committed Youth Awaiting Placement, Nov 2025.
8 vs 93
crossover youth DYRS and CFSA identified in FY2023, versus 93 found by an independent court-record analysis.
Office of the DC Auditor & Council for Court Excellence, A Broken Web, May 2024.
5.6×
as likely Black youth nationally are to be incarcerated as their white peers, the highest disparity on record since 1997.
The Sentencing Project, Black Disparities in Youth Incarceration, 2025.
Representation works

The system's numbers are grim. Advocacy changes them.

When a young person has an education attorney in their corner, outcomes shift. These are 2025 results from coalition member School Justice Project, which represents court-involved DC students with disabilities.

100%
of SJP clients released from incarceration re-enrolled in school within 30 days of release.
93%
of high-stakes probation show-cause hearings, where incarceration was on the line, were successfully mitigated.
86%
of juvenile court disposition hearings reached better, less punitive results.
~750
young people and their families served through direct representation, outreach, and training.
Source: School Justice Project, 2025 Year-in-Review, Direct Representation Program. Figures are SJP's own program outcomes for clients served in 2025.
How to read this

What these numbers can and cannot tell you.

Every figure here is sourced to a public report or dataset, and the source's own methodology and caveats travel with the number. Racial-disparity figures show that DC's juvenile legal system falls hardest on Black young people, a pattern consistent across every dataset DC publishes. Ward-level numbers map where the system reaches into DC, not where blame lies. When two sources give different numbers for the same thing, we publish both and explain the difference.

Methodology

Where every number comes from.

Every statistic on this page is drawn from a primary government, auditor, court, or peer-reviewed source. We use the source's own definitions and reporting windows, and do not re-aggregate across sources unless the methodology is explicitly published. When a figure is calculated from a dataset rather than restated from a report, we say so and link the dataset. We update each statistic when its source publishes new data, and the most recent update date appears below. If you find an error, please write to us.

Last updated: June 2026