The Worst City Government
The Worst City Government If you thought the government of the Virgin Islands was unwise to hire personnel consultants from the D.C. government, think about China. In 1987, the...
...In 1987, the People's Republic hosted Gwynne Washington, an assistant director of D.C.'s Department of Corrections, which last year allowed 18 escapes...
...The delicate task of deciding which 800 inmates to return to the streets fell to low-level clerks with little training...
...She was paid $28,000 for a three-month study of the needs of women inmates...
...Nobody gave [us] any specific guidelines," one worker told The Washington Post...
...It was a fire with opportunistic vandalism and a murder...
...The security at Lorton might seem impressive compared to that at Oak Hill, the District's maximum security facility for young offenders, run by the city's Youth Services Administration...
...housing project...
...But not to worry...
...It might have seemed logical for the parole board to make decisions about early release, but it was busy running a special rehabilitation program for excons— well, for one ex-con anyway: Mayor Marion Barry's ex-wife, who served time for defrauding tenants of a D.C...
...Asking the District for advice on prison security is like asking Mother Teresa for tips on birth control...
...Meanwhile, more than 6,000 city employees—roughly one in seven—make more than $40,000 a year, according to David Clarke, chairman of the D.C...
...Our favorite: the armed robber who strolled out with his family as visiting hours ended . . . . Nor does "sound management" leap to mind to describe the D.O.C.'s early release program to ease overcrowding...
...Not Hallem Williams...
...Investigators from the U.S...
...officials might have offered is semantics...
...The first lesson that D.O.C...
...It was catch-as-catch-can ." Or can't...
...But a 1987 report by the National Institute of Corrections, a federal agency, found that Lorton guards had a habit of forgetting to lock the doors...
...It's no surprise, then, that three of the 18 escapees simply walked out...
...It was not a riot," said the director of corrections...
...On the night of January 19, inmates at Lorton prison burned down the administration building...
...Several city council members have proposed a new system—complete with a provision to grant themselves immunity from parking fines...
...city council...
...Second place this month goes to Chicago, where, the Chicago Tribune reports, about $70 million in parking lines remain uncollected because the 11 city agencies that control them can't coordinate...
...Katherine Boo...
...In 1987, 25 percent of the inmates escaped, including two convicted of murder...
...Many of us might call this a riot...
...Like those of us on perpetual diets know so well," he said, "obesity is often reflected by a bulging middle...
...Our management is sound," said Williams...
...Department of Education found that a $200,000 education program was "almost nonexistent ." And this winter, a courtappointed rnonitor found the prison infested with rats and snakes and the inmates "entirely out of underwear...
Vol. 21 • March 1989 • No. 2
