Dewine announces Youth Services shakeup

COLUMBUS — The director of the state agency over the youth prison system is out, and a new director will start later this month, Gov. Mike DEWine announced Wednesday.

Ryan Gies, who served as the Ohio Department of Youth Services director, is moving to the Ohio Department of Public Safety. But he won’t be that agency’s director, and will serve as director of special projects in the department’s Office of Criminal Justice Ser- vices, Dewine’s spokesman Dan Tierney said.

Tierney was mum on the reason or timing of the change.

“There’s often cabinet changes during the course of an administration,” he said. “We’re making this announce- ment and being transparent about what the changes are.”

Dewine announced Amy L. Ast would become the department’s new director on Dec. 20. Beginning Saturday, Department of Youth Services’ Chief Counsel Lew George will serve as interim director until then.

Ast worked for the Department of Youth Services from 1996 to 2017, including as bureau chief of facility oper- ations from 2008 to 2017 — during which she assisted in several reforms in the discipline of juveniles in the system, including expanding education and apprenticeship programs and establishing new restraint policies, according to her resume.

After her first stint at the department, she worked for Rite of Passage, a company that offers behavioral health, specialized residential treatment and other services for youth and families.

“Amy brings a wealth of professional experience to the position and has a pas- sion for working with and improving the lives of juve- nile offenders,” Dewine said in a statement. “I would also like to thank Ryan Gies for his service at DYS.”

The department received criticism for years over its treatment of youth in its custody. From 2008 until 2019, the department was under federal court supervision as the state worked to improve conditions for youth, notably rolling back its use of solitary con- finement, called “seclusion.”

However, in January 2020, a U.S. Department of Justice survey found more than 15% of juveniles in Ohio reported being forced or coerced into sexual activity with youth or staff members — the worst rate in the nation and more than twice the national average.