NOTE: This article was updated at 3:03 p.m. EST on August 6, 2025 to include a statement from D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) and provide additional context around her thoughts about oversight of the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
In the aftermath of a former juvenile corrections officer’s conviction for sexual abuse of a minor, a couple of attorneys have filed a lawsuit with the demand that the District not only pays damages, but implements policies in alignment with national standards, and increases transparency at D.C.’s Youth Services Center (YSC).
On Tuesday morning, while surrounded by a group that included local organizers, children advocates and at least one former YSC resident, Bernadette Armand and Elizabeth Paige White announced their civil rights action against Kelvin Powell, the former juvenile corrections officer, as well as Sam Abed, director of the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and the D.C. Office of the Attorney General (OAG).
Each party, Armand said, plays a role in perpetuating the danger that young people face, particularly when they’re under the supervision of the D.C. government.
“This situation is a perfect example of how the city treats young people, especially those on the margins,” Armand, of Armand Law PLLC in Northwest, told The Informer. “Kids on the margins are the ones most likely to be victimized because perpetrators know that no one is going to believe these kids or worse, no one is going to care about these kids.”
In early July, a jury found Powell, 63, guilty on 16 counts of first- and second-degree sexual assault of a minor, and first- and second-degree sexual assault of a ward. He faces up to 15 years of imprisonment.
According to court documents, Powell repeatedly sexually assaulted the former YSC pre-trial resident, identified as K.A., between December 2021 and February 2022. Within that time period, he kissed, groped and raped her on several occasions, while the D.C. government and DYRS ignored warning signs, the document said.
The civil rights action also identifies another DYRS employee by the name of YDR Young, who repeatedly came to YSC intoxicated, and remained employed at the facility, even as she showed K.A. and other residents photos of her breasts and spoke to them about her sex life.
Armand said such situations establish a pattern of abuse toward justice-involved youth. At the time of the public gathering in front of OAG headquarters, the number of former YSC residents that came forward with stories of abuse was approaching a dozen.
“They are most easily targeted by people who want to take advantage of children and that’s why they need our support the most,” Armand said. “That’s why they need our attention today and they need litigation and they need community support to demand changes and attention to what they’re going through in this community.”
In a statement, Abed didn’t speak to the civil rights action, only Powell’s recent conviction.
“DYRS takes the safety of every youth in our care seriously and holds all employees accountable to the highest standards of conduct,” Abed’s statement read. “We maintain full confidence in the judicial process and express our appreciation for the diligent and professional efforts of our law enforcement partners. We support the jury’s decision and remain committed to accountability, transparency, and the well-being of young people entrusted to our care.”
A Deep Dive Into a Longstanding Issue
Based on Mt. Olivet Street in Northeast, YSC is a DYRS-operated facility that’s charged with the care and supervision of young people ordered by the D.C. Superior Court Family Court Division to be detained. Youth who occupy the 88-bed facility include: Title 16 youth who are adjudicated as adult offenders; those awaiting court proceedings; those who’ve been adjudicated and pending court action, and those who’ve already been committed to DYRS.
During the fall of 2023, reports surfaced of fights, staffing shortages, overcrowding and substandard living conditions at the facility. These reports, which took place amid Bowser’s search for a new DYRS director, prompted visits from D.C. council members and subsequent discussions about how to increase oversight.
Earlier this year, after preventing the closure of the Office of Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight months prior, the council, with D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) at the forefront, advanced legislation moving that office to the Office of the D.C. Auditor. However, the council failed to approve a version of the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Support Act funding a portion of the ROAD Act that enables an audit of DYRS.
White, of EPW Law PLLC, explained that this inaction speaks to a lack of urgency on the part of the council— and even Bowser.
“They’ve sent the community a message, that… DYRS doesn’t need oversight,” White told The Informer.
White and Armand argue K.A.’s sexual assault, and that of other youth, fall at the feet of D.C. officials.
“I think Councilmember Brooke Pinto mentioned that DYRS has ample oversight. Mayor Bowser has said that DYRS is a fantastic agency,” White said. “And so I think that our government is gaslighting us at this point into believing that the things that are not happening in this facility, or the things that are happening in this facility are not real, and that the agency that is tasked with protecting our children are doing so, and they are not.”
During a Committee of the Whole markup last year, Pinto, chair of the council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, acknowledged the need for improvements in services that DYRS provides. She, however, maintained a position that oversight is the council’s responsibility, not the D.C. auditor’s.
In a statement, Pinto told The Informer that she’s following developments at DYRS.
“Young people in the care of DYRS must be kept safe from harm,” Pinto’s statement read. “The staff working at these facilities are responsible for providing proper treatment, educational services, and safety and must be held accountable when they fail to meet these standards. As chairwoman of the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues as we ramp up oversight to ensure our young people are safe while under care and custody of D.C.”
Parker, who has committee oversight of DYRS, told The Informer that he’s preparing to introduce a “policy package” this fall to address the situation at the agency.
“This matter is deeply concerning, and my team and I have been following up in our ongoing oversight of DYRS,” Parker said in a statement. “In the several months since gaining oversight of the agency, I’ve been working to understand the challenges DYRS is facing and what we can do to ensure young people are safe and on the path to success.”
OAG and the Executive Office of the Mayor declined to comment.
As mentioned in the civil suit, YSC surveillance footage from December 2021 to February 2022 shows Powell as the only DYRS staff member on the girl’s unit on numerous occasions. Per the lawsuit, no one at DYRS watched the video footage documenting Powell’s inappropriate contact with K.A., which started with him bringing her outside food and beverages.
From that point, according to the lawsuit, Powell later grabbed K.A.’s buttocks as she’s decorating a door for Christmas. He also entered her cell, groped her and forced her to touch his private parts. Camera footage recorded instances when Powell, after extended periods of time inside K.A.’s cell, left the cell while adjusting his mask.
He also stood outside of K.A.’s cell, gesturing to her to take off her clothes and touch her private parts.
Attorneys say that Powell has assaulted other YSC youth — including in 2018, when he had sex with a 17-year-old resident by the name of A.B. in exchange for money. According to the lawsuit, Powell showed two YSC staff members footage of his sexual abuse of A.B.
YSC never investigated that incident, the lawsuit says, despite A.B. identifying her abuser as a “black shirt” which Powell served as at the time. Other instances, according to the lawsuit, include a sexual assault of another youth, and sexual intercourse with a child that resulted in his paying for an abortion.
“Kelvin Powell was left alone with our client on multiple different occasions and he frequently came onto the girls’ unit and was the only guard there,” White said. “We lay out in the lawsuit that it’s our understanding that Mr. Powell was known for having inappropriate contact with the children, that there were staff members that knew and had seen footage of him interacting with other children both inside and outside of the facility.”
Given the evidence that’s been gathered, White said that the solution lies in a total revamp of DYRS.
“I don’t think that this is switching out one or two guards,” White said. “I think that this is cleaning house, starting with new leadership. I think that’s starting with new leadership, hiring new people, giving them resources, paying them what they should be paid, having adequate staff, training, supervising.”
‘Who’s Going to Protect the Youth From the State?’
The National Prison Rape Elimination Act Juvenile Standards require that U.S.-based juvenile facilities develop, implement and document a staffing plan that paves the way for adequate staffing and video monitoring that protects residents against sexual abuse.
Another stipulation mandates that juvenile facilities maintain staffing ratios of, at minimum, one guard to eight residents during resident waking hours and one guard to 16 residents during resident sleeping hours, except under extreme circumstances that are documented. Those who are charged with investigating sexual incidents are also required to receive training, while staff are required to immediately report any “knowledge, suspicion or information” about sexual abuse or sexual harassment that occurs.
At a time when District officials have the emergency juvenile curfew law as a tool in curbing youth delinquency, some people, like Frankie Seabron, said it’s incumbent upon leaders to ensure that young people under their supervision are safe.
“When a youth gets picked up via curfew, they’re going to the Youth Services Center, the same center where these abuses are happening,” said Seabron. “Where children are having their jaws broken, where people are being sexually abused.”
Seabron, program manager at Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, a Black-led abolitionist community defense hub, counted among those who stood in solidarity with Armand, White, and the growing number of youth joining the civil rights action.
They said that District youth deserve understanding, mentorship, and safety — and not what they described as carceral responses to structural issues.
“The general sentiment or what I’ve seen in the city is … who is going to protect the city from the youth?” Seabron told The Informer. “My question is, who is going to protect the youth from the state, because they are actually not being kept safe.”