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Speakers addressed the harms of poor conditions, lack of educational services, and of sending children far from home and community.

Youth advocates on Tuesday called for a revamp of Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system to deal with an overcrowding crisis at the city’s youth detention center.

An issue as serious as sexual violence requires a response rooted in evidence. A common response nationwide is the practice of placing youth on sex offender registries. However, this fails to advance public safety or prevent sexual violence and has devastating consequences for registered youth and their families.

The St. Louis native who has been behind bars since he was 16 was among 100 people given life sentences as juveniles who got a new chance at parole after state legislators passed a law in 2021.

As President Biden noted, marking the occasion this year, every October is National Youth Justice Action Month, where we “recommit to transforming our juvenile justice system, shifting its focus from punishment to support — from the past to the future.” However, this transformation cannot take place if we continue to seek justice through policies that cause harm despite sounding benign.

Every youth needs support when entering state systems - it doesn’t matter if they enter the justice or child welfare system. Each youth’s needs are different, and not every case is the same. Many don’t have much support at all. I know this, from many of my friends who were in both systems and from my own direct experience.

For years the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania failed to address structural barriers that lead to imbalanced and inadequate education for youth with involvement in the justice and child welfare systems but Act 1 is the first step to correcting that.  

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Sept. 7 exposé about Juvenile Court Judge Alex Kim’s YouTube antics pulled back the curtain on the myth of the benevolent and wise juvenile court judge ensconced with the power to guide errant youth on a course of rehabilitation.