Punishing Kids With Years of Debt

Eli Hager, The Marshall Project •

“These are children in poverty making payments to multimillion-dollar corporations, under the threat of jail,” said Jessica Feierman, senior managing director of Juvenile Law Center, a legal advocacy group in Philadelphia. “If that’s intended to develop a sense of accountability, it’s not succeeding, because it’s asking kids to do the impossible.”

About the Expert

Jessica Feierman is the Chief Legal Officer of Juvenile Law Center, where she leads programmatic work and engages in impact litigation, amicus efforts, and policy reform to fight the harmful and discriminatory impact of the juvenile and criminal legal and family regulation systems. Jessica is a nationally recognized expert on the rights of young people, and has published and presented widely on economic justice, racial justice, adolescent development, conditions of confinement, and the youth legal system.