D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser suddenly dismissed the director of the city’s juvenile justice agency late last week for reasons that remain unclear.

“I was asked to resign,” said Hilary Cairns, who led the city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services for a year and a half, in an interview. “And I complied. I do not have any information about the reason for the request.”

Cairns also said she’d never received negative feedback from the mayor’s office during her tenure, and had no indication that there were “concerns about my performance or about the direction I was moving the agency.”

The Washington Post was first to report the news.

A spokesperson for Bowser declined to comment on the reason for Cairns’ departure — but it appears the administration made the request without a clear plan for future leadership of the agency. DYRS’s chief operating officer, Trey Stanback, will lead the agency as the search for a new director begins.

“We thank Director Cairns for her service and we are also grateful for Director Clarence ‘Trey’ Stanback for stepping up to lead the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services,” wrote Bowser’s office in a statement. “Anyone interested in serving young people in D.C. and supporting their families and communities is welcome to apply to lead DYRS at mota.dc.gov.”

Cairns’ departure came as a shock to advocates, many of whom had a good relationship with her. As DYRS director and before that, Cairns set her focus on providing increased services and opportunities — not just punishment — to young people involved with the justice system.

Eduardo Ferrer, the policy director at Georgetown University’s juvenile justice clinic and initiative, called Cairns “one of the most committed, caring, capable, and collaborative public servants we have encountered in our work in D.C.”

Speaking at a D.C. Council oversight hearing for DYRS on Monday afternoon, Ferrer voiced concern and confusion about her abrupt ouster.

“We were incredibly shocked and disappointed to learn last week that she would no longer serve as DYRS director, especially given that there does not appear to be a good plan behind or reason for such a decision,” Ferrer went on, adding that he felt the decision to terminate her “reflects a lack of understanding of the root causes of trends related to youth crime in the district.”

Prior to her role at DYRS, Cairns worked at D.C.’s Department of Human Services for a decade. While there, she worked on services for youth experiencing homelessness and created a diversion program that aims to keep kids out of the juvenile justice system. Ferrer testified that during her tenure at DYRS, Cairns helped the agency, staff, and the children they serve recover from the effects of the pandemic – and built upon important juvenile justice reforms that came before her.

The agency has undergone dramatic changes over the past few decades. In 1985, allegations of physical abuse and deplorable conditions at the city’s youth detention facility, Oak Hill, led to a class action lawsuit against the agency — which in turn led to 35 years of stringent court monitoring.

The city ultimately closed the 200-bed Oak Hill facility and replaced it with New Beginnings — a much smaller, 60-bed facility — in 2010. A group of reform-minded leaders took over the agency and determined to incarcerate fewer children, instead delivering more direct services to youth in the community like tutoring, behavioral health services, and recreation. Now, all young people who are convicted of crimes and placed in DYRS custody get access to a “credible messenger,” a city employee who can mentor them and help their family access city services.

Bowser’s decision to terminate Cairns comes at a time of heightened public concern about crimes involving young people — and when young people are increasingly victims of homicides.

At a panel last month at the Lamond Riggs neighborhood library, representatives from both the Office of the Attorney General and the D.C. police union said that while youth crime and arrests remain at 15-year lows, they’re seeing an uptick in the number of young people whose first arrest involves a gun or a more serious offense. And last year, 18 teens were fatally shot in the District, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings across the country. That was double the previous year’s rate of youth homicide.

The rise in serious crimes involving young people has led to disagreements about punishment, incarceration, and accountability.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and police chief Robert Contee have, in public statements over the past year, advocated for an approach that combines “accountability” for young people with access to services. They have at times argued D.C.’s youth prosecutors are not opting to incarcerate young people often enough.

Meanwhile, juvenile defenders and other advocates argue that over-incarcerating youth often backfires — since young people who touch the deepest ends of the juvenile legal system may be more likely to commit crimes in the future. Research has shown that juvenile incarceration is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes later in life. And detention in childhood has also not been proven to reduce future offenses; a 2015 MIT study found that incarcerated young people were 23 points more likely to reoffend by age 25 than their peers who had committed a crime but were not incarcerated.

Stanback, the interim director of DYRS, testified at Monday’s D.C. Council oversight hearing for the agency in one of his first official acts in the role.

“One lesson we constantly teach the youth under our care is that while you can’t always control what happens to you in life, you can control how you respond to situations we face,” he said. “Last week, Hilary Cairns stepped down from her role as director of DYRS. Director Cairns demonstrated a passion for youth and should be commended for her many years of service to the District’s youth and their families. We wish Director Cairns all the best and we know she’ll remain committed to improving the lives of young people. For the rest of us at DYRS, we must understand that change in life is inevitable. But it is up to us to refocus, redouble our efforts and resume our commitment to excellence. We must acknowledge that the effort we put into our work is in our control.”

Sarah Y. Kim contributed reporting.