| BUILDING SAFER COMMUNITIES & BRIGHTER FUTURES
Do children as young as ten years old end up shackled and in prison? In PA, yes, they do.
Imagine seeing a 10-year-old lying on a bare floor in shackles. State Rep. Rick Krajewski from Philadelphia did. At a press conference this week, he described the conditions he witnessed at a juvenile detention in his district.
“I was completely horrified and sick to my stomach by what I saw. I saw 10-year-olds, kids who were not even taller than this podium, in shackles, in gray sweatsuits, being taken to facilities, being taken to holding cells that didn’t even have beds. That’s not something that we should be doing to any kid in this Commonwealth, no matter what their offense or crime might have been.”
Juvenile crime is going down, and 94% of PA children ten or older in PA are charged with crimes where they are at low to moderate risk of reoffending. Yet they are sentenced to detention centers where the children who commit crimes are treated as if they are hardened criminals. Meanwhile detention is proven to contribute to rising rates of juvenile and adult crime. The status quo of putting children in prison isn’t making communities safe – it’s wasting taxpayer dollars, and it’s certainly not stopping young people from reoffending.
Diversion and community-based programs for children who commit low-level offenses give children the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and make amends and decrease the chance they will commit more crime. More than 80% of kids who have the option of entering a diversion program complete it with no further escalation in the case.
For instance, the Youth Aid Panel (YAP) in the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office trains community volunteers to meet with youth and assign education, restitution, or community service instead of prosecution. The program includes supportive services at no cost to young people or their families, as well as case managers to help the youth and families with tangible supports like transportation, food, and connections to housing. In 2023, the Montgomery County YAP served 700 youth, with 87% completing the program successfully.
This week, we stood with more than a dozen PA lawmakers in a press conference in the Capitol Rotunda to announce a package of reforms for the juvenile justice system that will make critically needed changes including expanding juvenile diversion programs and making sure they’re in place in every county. Doing so will give more than 9,300 young Pennsylvanians the chance to learn from their mistakes and repair the harm they caused.
Our latest report, Juvenile Diversion: A Smart Approach to Reducing Crime, is building the consensus behind the welcome momentum for these commonsense and child-friendly reforms, and fueling the Youth Safety Coalition’s work to get these bills passed this year.
Want to be involved? Contact Stefanie Arbutina at stefaniea@childrenfirstpa.org for more information.
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