Juvenile justice task force may be necessary

We appreciated this thought from state Sen. Mike Regan, RYork, quoted by The Associated Press: “I’d like to say there is no such thing as a bad kid. However, we all know kids do bad things.”

It’s true that some kids do bad things. So do some adults.

Consider the Luzerne County judges who, roughly a decade ago, were found to be sending kids to for-profit detention facilities in exchange for kickbacks from the operators of those facilities.

Consider the adults who were in charge of The Glen Mills Schools, a Delaware County juvenile justice facility that was shut down by the state earlier this year after The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its history of endemic abuse and violence toward its young residents, who’d been sent there by court order. (Three cheers for investigative reporting.)

As the Inquirer recounted, it “interviewed dozens of former students and counselors who said staff broke students’ bones and busted their heads open for infractions as minor as mouthing off.

“Glen Mills employees then threatened boys with longer sentences or told them they’d be sent to worse programs if they told their parents, according to interviews and records. Staff monitored students’ phone calls, and hid boys with egregious injuries in their rooms.” That is not juvenile justice; that’s cruelty. And anything like what transpired at Glen Mills must not be allowed to happen again.

The creation of the task force is “an important step toward protecting vulnerable young Pennsylvanians,” Wolf said. “With this task force, we can thoroughly review our juvenile justice system and find ways to make lasting change that ensures every young Pennsylvanian is getting the support needed to grow into a successful adult.”

That indeed should be the aim. A child who makes a mistake — or even repeated mistakes — shouldn’t be sentenced to a life of incarceration and poverty.

And though the term “task force” smacks of bureaucratese, this strikes us as an important effort to reform a system badly in need of it.

Republican House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, of Peach Bottom, said ensuring “our juvenile justice system rehabilitates our youngest offenders not only helps create a positive path for them but also strengthens families, protects communities, and promotes long-term benefits to all of us.” He is right, of course. So, too, was Jessica Feierman, senior managing director of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, who told the Inquirer that she hoped Wolf appointed young people and people of color to the task force.

This is important because young people of color are incarcerated “in disproportionately greater numbers ... even while youth offending patterns are relatively similar,” according to the law center’s website.

We hope the governor heeds this sound recommendation as he sets about working with the legislative and judicial branches to appoint task force members in the next month.

Dan Jurman, executive director of the state Office of Advocacy and Reform, will guide the task force’s work. Jurman formerly led the nonprofit Community Action Partnership of Lancaster County.

According to the Inquirer, Jurman said he would press for “changes that so many of us know have been needed for so long.”

“We can do better,” Jurman said. “We can be sure that trauma doesn’t become a life sentence for our children.”

His reference to trauma is significant. The trauma of what are known as adverse childhood experiences — assault, abuse, poverty, family breakdown and the like — can lead children to act out in ways that result in their incarceration. If the ultimate goals are rehabilitation and life success for juvenile offenders, our juvenile justice system is going to need to better recognize and treat trauma — and not heap more of it on already traumatized young offenders.

Pennsylvania’s rate of committing juveniles to residential detention ranks among the highest in the nation. A 2015 study coauthored by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Joseph Doyle found that juvenile incarceration lowers high-school graduation rates by 13 percentage points and increases adult incarceration by 23 percentage points.

A child’s whole life story shouldn’t be written in his adolescence. We hope the Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Task Force comes up with solutions that keep communities safe while ensuring that juvenile offenders get a chance to steer their lives in a more positive direction.

— LNP, The Associated Press