Growing up in D.C.,
a young man we're calling N.H. had heard about this detention center in the city.
It was a facility meant to detain young people charged with serious crimes.
But N.H. told my colleague, Nicole Dunca, he never thought he would end up there.
I really didn't hear much about it for real.
I wasn't worried about what I see for real when I was in school.
It wasn't like on my mind at the time.
I never even thought it was a real place.
NH says that in high school,
he started hanging out with a group he called the wrong people.
In 2023, NH was arrested and charged in D.C. for the first time.
He was 16.
And we should say we're identifying NH by his initials to keep his juvenile record confidential.
In 2024, NH was arrested again for carjacking.
After that,
a judge committed NH to the custody of D.C.'s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services,
or DYRS.
NH was supposed to be placed in a rehabilitation program and get services like therapy.
So he started waiting.
DYRS is the juvenile justice agency of the District of Columbia.