A District of Columbia agency that cares for young offenders has been found in contempt of court by a Superior Court judge after it defied her orders to place two girls in youth shelters while they awaited hearings. In separate cases in late July and early August, Superior Court Associate Judge Zoe Bush cited the Department of Youth Rehabilitative Services for contempt after agents there refused to move two girls to youth shelters, court records show.

Because the girls are juveniles, records of whom are supposed to be sealed, The Examiner couldn’t determine last week whether they are now being held or if have been released.

Reggie Sanders, spokesman for the youth agency, declined to comment for this story. And he refused to say whether the agency knew the whereabouts of the two teenagers at the center of the dispute.

City lawyers have claimed they don’t have space in the city’s 11 crammed youth shelters. But part of the problem, government sources told The Examiner, is that the youth agency hasn’t opened any youth centers for more than a year — even though D.C. set aside hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so.

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The youth agency didn’t solicit any bids for youth shelters until late last month, after The Examiner made phone calls, a source said.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the contempt citations stemmed from juvenile cases.

Youth agency Executive Director Vincent Schiraldi has expressed hostility to the idea of locking up children ever since he took over the troubled agency in 2004.

Schiraldi came to the city as a reformer who had spent his professional life challenging what he called “get tough” policies.

“We need to help young people reattach to the world of learning and work,” he told The Examiner last year. “We need to make sure they don’t languish in locked custody.”

One girl was arrested in March and cited in a delinquency petition with throwing rocks at a janitor near her apartment complex in Southeast. The girl, 16, was initially ordered into a detention center but was then ordered to be moved to a youth center in the District.

The second teen, now 18, was arrested after a robbery and put into a detention center. Bush soon ordered her moved to a youth shelter.

D.C. has been under a court order requiring to improve conditions for the young offenders in its custody for more than a decade and a half.

City lawyers have appealed both of Bush’s contempt citations, which ordered the District to pay $100 a day per juvenile. If the contempt citation holds, Bush would have wide discretion, including putting top officials in jail.

Got a tip on this story? Call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or Scott McCabe at 202-459-4950, or e-mail bmyers@dcexaminer.com or smccabe@dcexaminer.com.