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.
The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy •
Cyntoia Long Brown and Governor Bill Haslam sat down with Vanderbilt University Law Professor Christopher Slobogan to talk criminal justice reform. Hear from the 2022 Leadership Prize Winner as she tells her story and discusses the ways in which the justice system can fail young people. Go to 10:09 to hear from Cyntoia Long Brown.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Underage and under arrest. Pennsylvania is one of the most notorious states for incarcerating young people. Many are calling for reform and on Tuesday, previously imprisoned kid lent their voices to the cause at the capitol.
