Recent news

Physical and sexual abuse of youth in Pennsylvania detention and treatment centers is widespread, according to investigations by news organizations and lawsuits. More than 200 suits have been filed in the past year alone, some of which name state-run centers... McEvoy, Hood, and other advocates want the legislature to create an Office of Child Advocate that can independently investigate suspected abuse in state facilities.

State regulators revoked the license of Philadelphia’s juvenile detention facility this week — reissuing it on a provisional basis only — after a riot broke out during a boxing event there in January, endangering children, officials said.

A regional push is gaining momentum as leaders from Berks, Dauphin, and Lehigh counties ask the state for $19 million to reopen a youth detention center in Leesport. The plan would bring 30 beds to a renovated facility that’s been closed since 2012.

On a daily basis the actions of the new administration threaten our identities and ideals and challenge our faith in the law. Though the administration has changed, our values have not. Our resolve to continue to fight for children who are overpoliced, surveilled, separated from their families, and incarcerated has not diminished.

(The Center Square) – House Democrats are once again making the attempt to turn 2021 recommendations from the bipartisan, bicameral Juvenile Justice Task Force into legislative action.

The top show currently trending on Netflix is Adolescence, a British crime drama mini-series centered around 13-year-old Jamie who is arrested for the murder of a classmate. This program is truly like nothing I have ever seen. It starts with a shocking, cortisol-rush inducing scene of police breaking down the door to a home in an English town, ordering the family to get on the floor, and searching until they find Jamie, a slight boy in bed with a teddy bear. With guns aimed directly at him, they order him out of the house and place him under arrest to the horror and confusion of his parents and sister.

Richard is joined by Marsha Levick, co-founder and chief legal officer of the Juvenile Law Center. She discussed the organization's 50-year history advocating for children in the justice and child welfare systems and emphasized the need for better legal support and parole board practices. 

Today is the 20th anniversary of Roper v Simmons, a groundbreaking United States Supreme Court decision that ushered in a new framework for analyzing children’s rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment. Roper banned the death penalty for youth who were convicted of murder before they turned 18.