On the Box
The boys were in trouble. Maurice Jackson Jr., 15, and Mylaki Young, 16, had both missed too much school and were suspected of committing crimes. By late 2022, they were living with five other teens in a vacant apartment in Southeast Washington. The place was strewn with ghost gun parts and bullets.
After police raided the apartment, both boys were arrested. In D.C. Superior Court, Mylaki was charged with being a habitual runaway, while Maurice was already facing criminal charges from a prior arrest. The teens were outfitted with GPS ankle monitors to track them while they were free in the community, awaiting the resolution of their court cases.
“Youth installed on device 22-028488,” noted Mylaki’s court record on Dec. 9, 2022, when Judge Sherri Beatty-Arthur ordered him released. “... Charger and instructions were provided.”
It was Mylaki’s first time on “the box,” as many teens called it. But for Maurice, the box was nothing new. He had worn one just a few weeks earlier.
The monitors were supposed to help authorities keep watch over them.
Epilogue
About two months after Maurice’s death, the Court Social Services Division ended its years-long contract with Securus Monitoring, the brand name of the company that provided the GPS ankle monitors worn by juveniles in the D.C. court system.
"There were some limitations,” said Odom, who was still the director of the Court Social Services Division, of her agency’s use of the devices.
Then, she issued a mea culpa on juvenile deaths.
“Let me say this: We acknowledge that it was a failure. That five of our young people whose lives were cut short had our equipment on, equipment issued by the court,” she said.
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