Fixing Pa.’s juvenile justice system

May the task force be with you

• Joseph Darius Jaafari
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  Joseph Darius Jaafari was a staff writer for the PA Post. His work covering crime, the military and LGBTQ issues has been featured in The Marshall Project, Rolling Stone Magazine, The Atlantic and The New York Times. He is a graduate of the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, and an award-winning documentary filmmaker who has produced for VICE and The New York Post. He is a native Arizonan and infamous for his love of tacos.

On Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf and legislative leaders announced a Juvenile Justice Task Force charged with analyzing problems that get youth caught up in the criminal justice system.

This isn’t Wolf’s first attempt at changing the state’s juvenile justice system. In July, the governor signed an executive order to create the Council on Reform, which looked at how vulnerable — such as poor and youth — populations needed support. On Nov. 1, the council outlined the need for more work to reform the rules on how and why youths go to correctional facilities.

In January of this year, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency slammed the lack of funding for juvenile justice research, saying in a report that there was a 75 percent reduction in funds to address criminal justice reform and research into juvenile delinquency.

In that same report, researchers estimated that every year between 2013 and 2017, over 1.2 million youth were at risk of coming into contact with the criminal justice system in some way. And though kids of all backgrounds get into trouble, young people of color are put into corrections facilities in far greater numbers than white kids, according to the Juvenile Law Center.

This is all in the wake of two explosive revelations in the past decade The “kids for cash” scandal,  where two county judges were caught sending juveniles to correctional centers in exchange for money; and the allegations of abuse and violence at Glen Mills School, uncovered by The Philadelphia Inquirer this year.

“With this task force, we can thoroughly review our juvenile justice system and find ways to make lasting change that ensures every young Pennsylvanian is getting the support needed to grow into a successful adult,” Wolf said in his announcement Monday.

These kinds of task forces have been effective in laying out reform in other states, such as Maine, Arizona and New York, along with others.

In 2018, Colorado’s not-so-eloquent-sounding Improving Outcomes for Youth Statewide Task Force proposed to Gov. John Hickenlooper that the state institute more diversionary programs for youth, develop more standards and criteria for detention eligibility and create risk and needs assessments. The state adopted multiple bills this year to carry out what the task force proposed.

The Pa. task force would work with Pew Charitable Trusts to do data analysis on the system and then provide the governor with a set of recommendation by Nov. 30 of next year, just in time to include reform programs in the following year’s budget proposal. –Joseph Darius Jaafari

Best of the rest

• A Dairy scandal: Here’s a captivating long read from The Washington Post about how a Mennonite dairy might have illegally financed their operations, while also staying true to their religion. Trickling Springs Creamery in Chambersburg is being accused of violating the state’s Securities Act of 1972 by not disclosing to investors how many promissory notes the company had sold. Now, the same community that invested with them could face harsh financial repercussions.

• Online crime: The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts released this year’s cybercrimes report, and close to 70 percent of all crimes committed online had to do with sexual violence against children. The second most committed crime was unauthorized use of a computer, which could include hacking or altering documents on someone else’s computer.

• Two legislators bow out: Two Republican legislators announced yesterday they won’t seek reelection next year. State Rep. Justin Simmons, a Republican who represents Northampton, Lehigh and Montgomery counties, said he will not be on the 2020 ballot,  calling the moment “bittersweet.” Rep. Marcia Hahn, who also represents a part of rural Northampton county for close to a decade, said she would not seek a sixth term.

• White discrimination?: There are a few things in this world that don’t exist: unicorns, the limit and reverse racism. But discrimination is a whole other problem, and the basis for a claim brought against the Pittsburgh Public School district by a chief executive secretary. Kristen Frankovich, who is white, says she was passed over for multiple raises by black employees who had less experience. Here’s the Post-Gazette‘s story.

• Da bears: Pa. hunters harvested 4,577 bears this past year, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Armstrong and Butler counties had the most, with Westmoreland and Allegheny counties following behind. As a man who’s part of the bear community, I feel very attacked.

• Revoking licenses for abuse: In other hunting news, lawmakers are looking into barring people with animal cruelty convictions from getting hunting licenses. The proposed legislation comes after a video of two teens torturing a shot deer went viral this November. I’m not linking to it.

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