Pennsylvania has one of the highest rates of youth incarceration in the United States, with 91 youth per 100,000 being detained or committed to a juvenile detention facility. Being incarcerated drastically impacts a youth’s future for the worse. Research has proven that youth incarceration worsens education outcomes, harms youth’s mental and physical health, and reduces youth’s ability to find high-paying employment in adulthood. Ultimately, many of them will end up recidivating. It’s well past time for Pennsylvania to do better for our youth and ensure that small mistakes don’t cost them their futures.
 
To that end, we plan to introduce legislation that would implement Ohio’s highly successful RECLAIM Initiative in Pennsylvania. This program provides funding to local courts so that they can develop diversion and community-centered alternatives to incarceration for felony delinquent youth. The program was found to reduce juvenile commitments to detention facilities, drastically lower recidivism rates for participating youth, and save the state tens of millions of dollars. Our legislation would develop the same funding program for Pennsylvania juvenile courts, allowing them to develop diversion programs that are backed by research and proven to provide better outcomes for delinquent youth.
 
Research, including that done by the Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Task Force, shows that diversion is underutilized in this Commonwealth. Let’s change how we treat delinquent youth in Pennsylvania and provide them with the opportunity to change their futures for the better.
 
Please join us in co-sponsoring this important legislation to support Pennsylvania’s youth