Philadelphia Hearing Presented a Powerful Case Against Institutionalizing Kids
YAP National Policy Director, Shaena Fazal
Anyone who doubts that high-risk kids are safer in family community-based care and believe juvenile incarceration and residential facilities are the only solution should have been at City Hall in Philadelphia for yesterday’s hearing on institutional placements for young people.
Members of Juveniles for Justice, an advocacy group of the Juvenile Law Center, Lilly, Hid and Qilah spoke courageously of the time they were away from home in institutions. They recalled difficult memories of being abused. They also talked about how hard it was to feel isolated from their families. Quila said her home removal came because she was truant. “People should have asked me why I was late to school or not showing up, but no one asked me, they just took me away,” she said.
Philadelphia Councilwoman At-Large Helen Gym hosted the hearing. The organizers, a coalition of advocacy groups based in the city, said 900 Philadelphia youth are currently in institutional placements far from home. These placements are expensive — they cost $119,000 per child annually — and too many of them have been cited for neglect and abuse. The Coalition reported that in Philadelphia, seven in 10 youths in placement are black. Borrowing a quote from the event announcement, “We know we can serve our young people just as well in local settings which focus on culturally competent, community-based, trauma-informed treatment.”
YAP Regional Director for Philadelphia, Randall Sims and I spoke about Youth Advocate Programs (Inc.) and our decades of successfully keeping high-risk kids at home and away from juvenile detention and social services residential facilities. We shared outcomes from three programs in Philadelphia Youth Advocate Programs (PYAP) and our history of partnering with DHS for over 41 years.
Randall’s testimony included these facts:
In our Evening Reporting Center, which is a pre-adjudication program which served 45 young people:
- 93% not arrested while in our program
- 82% not adjudicated of a new offense; and of those who were, only 2% adjudicated of a felony
- And we increased number of kids living at home from 80% to 93%
In our Day Reporting Center, a post-adjudication program, which served 67 young people:
- 90% not arrested while in program
- 84% not adjudicated of a new offense while with us
And in our gender-specific program, we served 29 girls:
- 90% not arrested
- 93% not adjudicated
The Coalition called the hearing #safelyhomephilly, using the framework in YAP’s Safely Home Campaign.
Cynthia Figueroa, Commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services (DHS), a YAP Philadelphia partner, also testified. She said 1,313 Philadelphia youth are in congregate care, with 715 in care for abuse or neglect and 598 in group care for justice-related issues. She added that 98 percent of all the placements are in-state and reiterated her commitment to working with the Coalition to bring youth safely home.
We thank DHS for being such a strong partner with us to help us bring and keep so many young people safely home, over many years. Special thanks also to Councilwoman Gym, the advocates who helped make this hearing happen, and especially the young people who reminded us all why we’re fighting to keep kids safely home.
To read our full testimony, please click here.
