The District's Department of Youth and Rehabilitation Services could have prevented Sanquan Carter from being released from jail in March. It didn't, and just days later the 19-year-old allegedly committed the first murder that started a chain of violence that ended in one of the District's deadliest rampages, according to an internal attorney general's report obtained by The Washington Examiner.

Carter's release from custody just days before he allegedly shot and killed Jordan Howe over a costume bracelet is the norm for the District's Department of Youth and Rehabilitation Services, the report concluded.

Other details of the attorney general's report: -- DYRS "lacks a uniform response" when a juvenile convict runs away. -- The agency doesn't work closely with other jurisdictions to keep track of its wards. -- The report takes issue with DYRS only using prior convictions, and not all prior arrest information, when determining sentencing.

"DYRS procedures and practices favor release to the community without regard to the youth's needs, prior criminal acts or potential for re-offending," the report says. In Carter's case, DYRS failed to put a hold on the 19-year-old that may have prevented his release from jail after serving time for several adult convictions.

"When the youth is locked up on an adult charge ... DYRS fails to put a hold on the youth [causing DYRS not to be] notified or given the opportunity to detain the youth when he is released on the [adult charge]," the report says.

DYRS was aware of the adult convictions and convened a meeting regarding Carter's rehabilitation in December 2009, the report says. But Carter was released because DYRS did not notify D.C.'s adult probation agency of the need to send Carter back into DYRS custody.

Authorities said Howe's fatal shooting led others to retaliate against Carter's brother, Orlando Carter. But he was only grazed, and days later allegedly joined three other young men in gunning down four people on South Capitol Street who had just attended Howe's funeral.

D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells, whose committee oversees DYRS, told The Examiner that the report's conclusions on Sanquan Carter's case are evidence of gaps between the juvenile and adult justice systems.

"The thing to do is to remove the cracks and commit to one agency," he said. "An adult crime should be handled by the adult system."

The Fenty administration listed the attorney general's DYRS report as a key impetus for firing the agency's interim director last week and replacing him with Deputy Attorney General Rob Hildum. The move made Hildum the agency's third director in seven months.

D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson said the rapid succession of DYRS heads has caused "enormous instability." Hildum has not yet been nominated to become the agency's long-term leader.