Mar 25, 2022 2 min read

Pennsylvania has made incremental but significant progress in juvenile justice reforms in more than a decade since the perverse “Kids for Cash” juvenile court scandal in Luzerne County stunned the nation.

But lawmakers have not yet acted on comprehensive reforms recommended a year ago by the special commission that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican legislative leaders created in 2019. That 30-member group – juvenile justice advocates, lawyers, judges and lawmakers – provided detailed data on the juvenile court system and recommended 35 improvements. The objectives were to standardize the system, emphasize treatment alternatives to detention and ensure fair and equal treatment across the commonwealth.

Now Republican state Sen. Camera Bartolotta (Carroll Township) and Democratic Sen. Art Haywood of Philadelphia plan to introduce the Juvenile Justice Policy Act, which would convert many of those recommendations into law.

The commission found that about two-thirds of juveniles enter the justice system for relatively minor offenses, including failing to pay fines levied by district magisterial judges. But the state has no definitive standard for when courts may remove minors from their homes, creating wide disparities across the state in procedures and, more important, in results.

Under the bill, low-level juvenile cases would be diverted to resolution methods other than the courts. Detention outside of the adolescent’s home would be allowed only in the most serious cases. That would have the added benefit of saving taxpayers the average cost of more than $19,000 a year for each averted detention, which also is substantially more expensive than the therapy that often can produce a better result.

“Focusing costly out-of-home placement on our most serious cases will reduce unnecessary spending and free up fiscal resources for reinvestment into interventions within the community, which enhance public safety and put these young people back on track,” Bartolotta and Haywood wrote. “More cost-effective options include family therapy, outpatient substance use, and other programs that work with kids in their communities.”

The commission’s and the lawmakers’ proposal offer the prospect of more consistent, fairer and rehabilitative rather than merely punitive juvenile justice, without imperiling public safety. The Legislature should pass the bill.