Keeping youth safe in (and from) the juvenile justice system
For far too long, we have allowed Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice practices to routinely undercut the stability of families, communities and the economy. Our system currently removes kids from home, disrupts their education and spends significant taxpayer dollars on interventions that aren’t effective.
That’s why we formed the Pennsylvania Legislative Youth Safety Caucus, and why we’re working to pass a package of evidence-based policies that will improve outcomes in our juvenile justice system.
Keeping families intact
Specifically, we want to keep families intact by requiring the use of community-based services instead of incarceration whenever it is consistent with public safety and the needs of our kids.
As a state, we need to better utilize effective juvenile justice interventions like diversion, rely less on costly detention and out-of-home placements, stop imposing fines and fees when they aren’t constructive accountability measures, and treat all kids like kids, rather than automatically charging some of them in the adult system.
It remains critical that we identify ways to hold young people accountable for their behavior, but we also need to reduce barriers to better enable all Pennsylvania children to grow up into responsible and productive members of our communities.
Most kids in the juvenile justice system aren’t on a path toward adult crime and haven’t committed a felony, so why do
we continue to expose them to a system we know can increase the likelihood they reoffend?
We know that about twothirds of kids enter the justice system for relatively minor offenses like failing to pay fines, disorderly conduct or schoolyard fights. We know that even kids who are arrested for the first-time on a nonviolent offense can end up removed from their homes and sent to out-of-home placement.
These kids spend an average of 16 months in placement, at a cost to the state of up to $200,000 per year per kid. We also know that this kind of incarceration has been proven time and again to be ineffective, leading to more reoffending down the line. Yet we maintain the status quo.
When the damage is already done
For kids with the most serious offenses, Pennsylvania law currently requires that they be automatically charged as if they wereadults, a practice known as direct file. More than 60% of these cases end up dismissed, withdrawn or transferred back to juvenile court, but by then the damage — both in terms of outcomes for these kids and in terms of costs to the system — is already done.
Pennsylvania research and data show that providing a community-based response is the best way to get most young people back on track, and we must reserve intensive and costly interventions for the most serious cases.
That’s why we’ve introduced bills to increase the use of diversion and reduce out-of-home placement (Senate Bill 752), to eliminate direct file (Senate Bill 751), to expand school-based diversion and improve school stability for youth while they’re in the juvenile justice system (House Bill 1708), and to protect kids in facilities (House Bill 1600). We also support any bills introduced by our colleagues that are evidence-based bills and would improve outcomes for our kids.
Breaking the cycle
At the end of the day, these young people are part of our community. We as lawmakers and stewards of the public have a duty to break the cycle by ensuring kids receive treatment and programming that address their needs and better prepare them to be productive individuals. This work transcends party, and the bipartisan nature of our caucus, along with the wide range of advocacy organizations that support it, demonstrates that.
The two House bills passed out of the House Judiciary Committee last week. This is a crucial first step to usher in a new system that is fair, evidence-based and equipped with the tools to strengthen families and foster public safety in the long-term.
Many of our colleagues have already joined us in this work, and we hope even more will support the Youth Safety Caucus this session to get these bills across the finish line. We can’t afford to wait.
The authors are co-chairs of the legislature’s bipartisan Youth Safety Caucus: Southwest Pennsylvanians Sen. Camera Bartolotta (46th senatorial district) and Rep. Natalie Mihalek (40th legislative district) are both Republicans. Philadelphia-area Sen. Anthony Williams (8th senatorial district) and Rep. Melissa Shusterman (157th legislative district) are both Democrats.