The PA Juvenile Justice Task Force Releases Final Report and Executive Summary

The PA Juvenile Justice Task Force has released their final report and executive summary of their recommendations. All reports and background information can be found here.

The task force developed 35 data-driven, research-based recommendations intended to:

• Strengthen due process and procedural safeguards.
• Employ evidence-based practices at every stage of the juvenile justice process.
• Raise the minimum age for when a youth can be tried in juvenile court.
• Narrow the criteria for trying young people as adults in criminal court.
• Consistently divert young people with low-level cases to community-based interventions in lieu of formal delinquency proceedings.
• Focus the use of pre-adjudication detention.
• Focus the use of residential placement on young people who pose a threat to community safety, and keep youth out of home no longer than the timeframe supported by research.
• Reinvest averted costs in non-residential evidence-based practices and increased access to services.
• Prioritize restitution payments to victims and prevent unnecessary system involvement by eliminating the imposition of fines and most court fees and costs.
• Ensure that young people who have completed their obligations to the court are not held back from successful transition into adulthood by records of juvenile justice system involvement.
• Improve oversight to ensure that every young person placed in the custody of the Commonwealth is safe, treated fairly, and receiving a quality education.
• Increase system accountability and address inequities through enhanced data reporting to the public and wider representation on oversight bodies.