PHILADELPHIA (Feb. 8, 2021) – Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner today highlighted the dramatically positive impact that his administration’s groundbreaking juvenile justice reform policies, in tandem with other justice system partners, have had on system-involved youth and communities across the city. These policies, spearheaded by First Assistant Robert Listenbee and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office Juvenile Unit, are public health driven, trauma-informed, and are primarily designed to treat children as children by resolving the overwhelming majority of cases involving youth in juvenile court instead of adult court; vastly expanding youth diversion programs and opportunities for restorative justice; greatly reducing youth residential placement; and providing supports that truly rehabilitate while balancing accountability and public safety.
“Our administration pledged to treat system-involved youth as kids and reform the juvenile justice system by working to make it fairer, more rehabilitative, and less retributive,” said DA Krasner. “It’s clear that First Assistant Robert Listenbee, as well as our Juvenile Unit and Senior Policy Advisor Dana Bazelon, have done just that. The positive changes set in motion by their dedication to our youth and communities are perhaps the most impactful and substantial of any of the reforms implemented by my administration.”
Ensuring that system-involved youth maintain close contact and meaningful involvement with family members while receiving rehabilitative programming is critically important. These policies have set in motion a dramatic decline in the number of out-of-home youth placements. According to Philadelphia Family Court statistics, there were over 600 children in residential placements in 2017. That number has dropped to an unprecedented 109 in just three years, with more work to be done.
Along with our justice system and social service partners, the Krasner administration’s juvenile reform policies have helped contribute to a 66% increase in the number of youth placed closer to home (in or near Philadelphia) and their loved ones instead of in other parts of the state. It is also through these policies that the Krasner administration has been able to meet or even exceed some of the goals set by Philadelphia City Council’s Youth Residential Placement Task Force.
These policies have also had a dramatic impact on Direct File Juvenile (DFJ) cases and the speed at which cases are moved from adult court to the juvenile system. Only 7 cases were adjudicated after a preliminary hearing in adult court in 2018 and 6 in 2019, compared to 118 between 2015-2017. Moreover, the vast majority of cases returned to the juvenile system from adult court, 112 of 118 (94%) in 2018 and 85 of 94 (79%) in 2019, were done so before a preliminary hearing. The Krasner administration has also done away with forcing youth to plead guilty or agreeing to residential placement as conditions to having their cases returned to the juvenile system.
Simply moving youth out of the juvenile justice system isn’t enough, however, because many require supports to ensure they don’t recidivate. This is accomplished through our expanded menu of community-based diversion programs. In January 2019, our Juvenile Diversion Unit had just 8 diversion service providers and programs for youth. In February of this year, that number jumped to 21. This increase in partnerships with community-based organizations like the Philadelphia Anti-Drug-Anti-Violence Network (PAAN), which assists in case management, housing support, food aid, and much more, has enabled the DAO to service youth by providing them with opportunities for artistic instruction, sports-based and career-readiness programming, as well as conflict resolution and restorative justice initiatives. Programs such as MileUp, a running and mentoring program, enables youth to complete restitution for certain felony cases and have even offered jobs as Youth Advocates. Another program, Hopeworks, is a paid training program for web design and coding that also assists youth in strengthening their academic abilities. 88% of youth who complete the program secure employment with an average starting annual income of $36,000. A list of diversion programming is available upon request.
This programming crucially serves another purpose: Improving the delivery of restitution to victims. Because of our community-based diversion partners, diverted youth in 2020 were able to earn and pay off over $19,000 in restitution. It is also important to note that while accountability is crucial to the justice process, other financial consequences from juvenile system involvement can hinder rehabilitation and even cause recidivism in some cases. That’s why the DAO, in partnership with United Way of Greater Philadelphia, has launched a pilot restitution program that ensures victims can have quicker access to funds owed to them. United Way has pledged $34,000 to this effort, and the pilot will be independently evaluated for its efficacy by Drexel University in the future.
DA Krasner also believes in giving youth who have committed the gravest offenses a chance at redemption. That’s why in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana, the Krasner administration has worked tirelessly to holistically examine every case under consideration for re-sentencing, taking into account factors including the involvement of adult co-defendants, the presence of peers, the context in which the violent crime occurred, the perpetrator’s level of remorse, and their behavior during incarceration. The Krasner administration on average has offered sentences 11 years shorter when compared to the previous administration. According to a study released in 2020, Resentencing of Juvenile Lifers: The Philadelphia Experience, of the 174 juvenile lifers (out of 269) from Philadelphia who were re-sentenced and subsequently released, a mere 1.14% were rearrested for committing a new crime.
“I applaud the continuing progress the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office has made in shrinking the footprint of the youth justice system, through increased use of diversion and reduced incarceration, and the successful re-integration of hundreds of men and women previously sentenced to die in prison for crimes they committed as children combined with significant reductions in the number of children tried as adults,” said Marsha Levick, Chief Legal Officer at the Juvenile Law Center. “These developments are both hopeful and instructive as we reimagine a youth justice system that increasingly relies on community resources rather than secure correctional facilities, and that listens to the voices of those directly involved to prioritize caring and rehabilitation over custody and control. But while much that was shared today is laudable, we must work ever harder to combat the continuing systemic racism that infects every aspect of our justice system. A system that continues to target primarily black and brown youth can never truly deliver justice.”
The Krasner administration remains committed to improving the juvenile justice system in Philadelphia so that system-involved youth and victims are able to rehabilitate and heal.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is the largest prosecutor’s office in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the nation. It serves the more than 1.5 million residents of the City and County of Philadelphia, employing 600 lawyers, detectives, and support staff. The District Attorney’s Office is responsible for the prosecution of approximately 40,000 criminal cases annually.
