Bills inspired by juvenile justice task force report teed up for votes in Senate

HARRISBURG — Five bills inspired by a 2021 task force on improving juvenile justice are nearing final votes in the state Senate.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved three juvenile justice reform measures early last week. Days later, the Senate Aging and Youth Committing approved two other measures inspired by that task force’s work.

“Updating our juvenile justice system will address its current issues and guide children down a successful path, while also strengthening families,” Judiciary Committee chairwoman Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, said in a statement after the committee vote.

The juvenile justice task force was announced by former Gov. Tom Wolf in 2019 in the wake of revelations about abuse at the Glen Mills School in Delaware County. It also came more than a decade after the Kids for Cash scandal in Luzerne County. The Kids for Cash scandal inspired Act 32 of 2009, enacted to create the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice. The three-branch commission was charged with finding ways to prevent a repeat of a corruption scandal where two county judges went to federal prison for accepting kickbacks for sending young offenders to privately owned juvenile detention centers. The commission report led to a series of laws enacted in succeeding years to change how juvenile cases are handled and tried in court.

The 2021 juvenile justice task force report documented an apparent over-reliance on out-of-home placements for juvenile offenders, noting that many youth placed in residential facilities were considered lowrisk offenders.

“Approximately 60 percent of adjudicated young people sent to residential placement are removed from home for a misdemeanor offense, and just 39 percent had committed a person offense. Nearly 40 percent of youth are sent to placement on their first written allegation,” the report found.

And once juvenile offenders get placed in an out-ofhome facility, there’s rarely an easy way out.

“Youth spend years out of home and under court supervision, on average,” according to the task force report. “Young people sent to residential placement cycle through six facilities, including detention and shelter facilities, and cumulatively stay 16 months out of home over the course of their case, on average.”

And the task force found that the over-reliance on outof-home placements consumes “the vast majority of taxpayer spending” on juvenile justice even though other options that allow the offenders to remain at home are considered more effective.

The juvenile justice bills approved by the Judiciary Committee focused on reducing the amount of time between status hearings for juveniles sentenced to out-ofhome placements, as well as reducing the length of time before juvenile offenses are expunged for many misdemeanor offenses.

The measures approved by the Aging and Youth Committee would direct the state to begin providing funding to help counties cover the cost of providing public defenders to juveniles accused of crimes and limiting out-of-home placements for juveniles to situations where it’s in the best interest of the child or in the interest of public safety.

They are five of more than 30 recommendations made by the task force.

All five bills are now in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Last session, all five bills were voted out of the Appropriations Committee but didn’t come up for a final vote before the full Senate.

“Updating our juvenile justice system will address its current issues and guide children down a successful path, while also strengthening families.” Judiciary Committee chairwoman Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne