Surviving The System: The Treatment Inside Many Juvenile Placement Centers Is Worse Than Imagined
His story was one of many during a daylong series of testimony and affirmations and pleas to Philadelphia City Council during a hearing inside Council’s chambers in May. Youth and adults of all ages shared recollections of horrific conditions while members of the Department of Human Services, the School District of Philadelphia and other notables within the child welfare scene listened. The goal was to shed light and implore Council to keep a closer eye on the current modus operandi when it comes to a cycle of Philadelphia’s youth being ripped from families and familiarity and thrust into privatized placement facilities – many with abhorrent conditions.
It’s a cycle where many of these organizations turn a blind eye to the conditions youth face in facilities that are designed to rehabilitate, but in many ways instead act as a precursor to the prison system.
“It’s really hard for young people to talk about what happened to them in these facilities,” said Kate Burdick, an attorney at the Juvenile Law Center, a Center City-based organization that works to turn those kids that were in the system into advocates for support and change once they come out. “Especially if they’re still under court supervision, there’s a chance they might end up back there and if they’re out telling their story it could have repercussions if they were ever sent back there. On top of that, you have a situation where it’s just really hard to discuss horrible memories in general. They also don’t see much in talking about what happened to them because in so many cases they feel like they’re not believed.”
