Juvenile Law Center works to bring young people in the child welfare and justice systems home from institutional placements, and to ensure that youth placed outside of the home are in the most family-like and least traumatic conditions possible.

Through the child welfare or juvenile justice systems, hundreds of Philadelphia youth are placed in residential institutional settings throughout the commonwealth, which include secure (lock-down) facilities, nonsecure institutions and treatment facilities. Youth placed in large juvenile justice facilities often face harsh conditions including solitary confinement, strip searches and physical restraints. Children in both the justice and child welfare systems typically receive inadequate education when in congregate care, making it more difficult for them to transition successfully home and to adulthood. Youth in both systems may come into the system with trauma histories or disabilities that make abusive treatment even more devastating. Youth of color, LGBTQ youth and youth with disabilities are more likely to be placed in institutional care and are more likely to suffer abusive conditions of confinement than their peers.

Juvenile Law Center's Philadelphia work includes a coalition effort: Safely Home Philly, a campaign that we are launching in collaboration with colleagues at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, Education Law Center, Support Center for Child Advocates, Disability Rights Pennsylvania, Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project and others. The campaign seeks to bring hundreds of children back home from large institutional placements far from our city, and even in other states. Bringing children back to Philadelphia and their families with the services and supports they need at home and in their neighborhoods creates better outcomes for children, keeps communities safe and reduces wasteful costs.

Safely Home Philly draws lessons from the successful Close to Home initiative in New York City. Annie E. Casey Foundation recently reported that Close to Home achieved its two primary objectives: removing New York City youth from large, dangerous, expensive and ineffective facilities far from home; and bringing them home to New York City where they are with, or at least closer to, their families. The reform provided trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate services for youth, made communities safer by reducing recidivism, increased education success making long-term opportunities brighter, and saved taxpayer dollars wasted on harmful institutions with exorbitant costs. Our campaign also draws lessons from the Youth Advocacy Program's national Safely Home campaign, which emphasizes the importance of bringing young people back to their homes and families.

The time is ripe for change in Philadelphia. Agency partners are committed to reform. We have a forward-looking District Attorney's office and the Department of Human Services has already made significant reductions in the number of youth in residential facilities. City council is also engaged: Councilmember Gym's office has called a hearing to address Safely Home Philly at city hall on May 17. With our colleagues, we are urging the city to assess the needs of youth in facilities around the state, and reinvest the funds currently spent on out-of-county facilities to create community-based, trauma-informed services for youth and their families in Philadelphia. We also call on the city to continue reviewing contracts with all current institutional providers to ensure that placements have developmentally appropriate services. We look forward to building off longstanding partnerships with DHS and other stakeholders through an interdisciplinary task force, to quickly implement these urgently needed reforms.

We will be following this hearing with a second community event hosted by Mural Arts on June 12, in the courtyard of city hall from 4-7 p.m. The event is part of the Mural Arts project “Imaging Justice.” The project looks to youth impacted by incarceration as experts in re-imagining the system. From 6:30-7 p.m., following discussion sessions with youth and advocates, the program will put youth incarceration on trial in an innovative courtroom enactment.

On the national level, Juvenile Law Center continues to play a leadership role in the fight to end solitary confinement for youth in the justice system. Solitary confinement is harmful to youth and does not make facilities or communities safer. Instead of solitary confinement, which deprives youth of needed social interaction, we advocate for trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate care that can support youth in developing the problem-solving skills they need to become healthy adults. Solitary confinement is inhumane for anyone. For adolescents at a critical stage of brain development, the deprivation of peer and adult contact is particularly damaging.

Last year, we filed a class action lawsuit in Wisconsin to challenge the abusive practices at Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, where youth faced excessive solitary confinement, pepper stray, strip searches and physical restraints. In June, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction holding the practices unconstitutional. In January, Gov. Scott Walker announced that both facilities will be closed. As with Safely Home Philly, the challenge is now to ensure that the money saved is reinvested in community-based services close to the child's family, and that the voices of youth in the justice system and their families are central to discussions about next steps.

Our Youth Advocacy Programs, Juveniles for Justice and Youth Fostering Change, are integral to our efforts. Each year, Juvenile Law Center admits 15 youth advocates who have experience with the justice and child welfare systems, respectively, into each program. They meet weekly at our office and go through extensive training to become effective speakers and advocates. Annually, each group chooses a reform project to focus their advocacy efforts. This year, Juveniles for Justice is working on conditions of confinement. They will be active participants at the May 17 hearing and at the Mural Arts program in June. With alumni in our speakers bureau, they are speaking across the city and where needed across the country to educate stakeholders about the abusive practices endured at juvenile justice facilities and to make the case for services in our Philadelphia neighborhoods so youth can be safely re-integrated and our system can be reimagined.

Join us or watch for updates following the city council hearing on May 17. Plan to attend the Mural Arts public performance placing youth incarceration on trial on June 12. Philadelphia has the legal services community and public leadership to make our city a model of best practices for youth in the justice or child welfare system to be placed safely within our community.

Susan Vivian Mangold is the executive director of Juvenile Law Center. Juvenile Law Center advocates for rights, dignity, equity and opportunity for youth in the child welfare and justice systems. Contact her at [email protected].