Open City Advocates, founded in 2005 by Whitney Louchheim and Penelope Spain, provides legal representation and mentoring services to children in the Washington D.C. juvenile system who have undergone sentencing and have been committed to the custody of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (“DYRS”). Children can be committed to DYRS custody until they turn twenty-one. Open City Advocates primarily serves youth aged 14-25, who are predominantly Black and Latino.

While committed to DYRS, a child’s placement and the services he or she may receive often change. A child can be placed in secure facilities, in group homes, or may be placed in the community at their family homes. DYRS is responsible for deciding where every individual is placed. DYRS also determines supervision requirements, such as whether a child must participate in mental health services, be on electronic monitoring, or adhere to a nightly curfew. Open City Advocates helps its young clients navigate this process by explaining the system and ensuring their voices are heard in the decision-making process. Their lawyers also seek to hold DYRS accountable to their mission of transitioning youth successfully back into the community.

In 2020, Open City Advocates was instrumental in securing the right for all children to have access to an attorney during their period of commitment to DYRS. The D.C. Court of Appeals in In Re N.H.M. held that children have a right to counsel in all ancillary judicial proceedings, which includes those that happen during a youth’s commitment. D.C. Family Court now appoints a “post-commitment attorney” to every child in DYRS custody. D.C. was the first to implement this framework of youth defense. Open City Advocates works to make the criminal legal system more just both on a direct personal level by providing comprehensive expressed-interest advocacy for systems-involved youth and on a systemic level by supporting policy reform. 

Raymond Ngu is the Legal Director at Open City Advocates. Raymond graduated from Carleton College, where he majored in Sociology/Anthropology. He later received his J.D. from NYU School of Law. After law school, Raymond was a public policy and health care associate with Covington & Burling LLP and maintained an active pro bono docket. While at Covington, Raymond provided pro bono services at the Neighborhood Legal Services Program where he represented clients on issues ranging from custody to child support, and civil protection orders. 

In this interview, Mr. Ngu discusses the challenges faced by post-commitment attorneys for youth in D.C., the rewarding aspects of working with youth in this capacity, and his vision for the legal system and post-disposition advocacy. 

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