Lindsey E. Smith & Nadia Mozaffar, American Bar Association •
Juvenile Law Center is proud to share a recent publication from Lindsey E. Smith & Nadia Mozaffar regarding the harms of restitution. We are proud to be a leader in the Debt Free Justice campaign and staunchly support the end of court fines, fees, and restitution for all youth.
In the winter of 2007, when I was 15 years old, a police officer called my home in White Haven, Pa. to inform me I was being arrested for creating a MySpace parody of my vice principal. The officer told my mother he would charge me with abuse of the internet and internet stalking — both federal charges — unless she agreed not to involve attorneys.
Young people caught up in the juvenile justice system are too often punished for being poor, saddled with paying excessive restitution that leaves them broke and leaves their victims out of luck, too, a new report says.
She entered the juvenile justice system at 13, after she ran away from home for the first time, hoping to escape a volatile relationship with her mother. Before long, running away escalated to petty theft, then stealing cars and breaking into homes. It cost her nearly two years spent in and out of juvenile facilities, and many additional months still tied to the system through probation.
Although four juvenile justice reform bills are primed to move forward in the Pennsylvania Senate, it would appear that the heaviest of lifting on the effort is yet to be done.
