Disturbing new photos inside Philly’s juvenile jail show kids sleeping on floors in crowded, filthy cells

Philadelphia has asked a judge to hold the state in contempt of court for failing to address a crisis of overcrowding inside the city’s juvenile jail — escalating a blame game that has continued for more than a year.

The filing in Commonwealth Court this month described grim conditions at the Juvenile Justice Services Center (JJSC) in West Philadelphia, and included disturbing photos that showed children sleeping on floors and benches in crowded, filthy rooms, where advocates say lights are left on 24 hours a day, and access to bathrooms and showers is limited.

The images illustrate the stakes in a nearly three-year battle between the city and Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services (DHS), as about 211 young people living in a facility licensed to hold 184 miss out on daily access to school, family visits and programming, advocates say.

The city blames the state for failing to take custody of young people who have committed crimes and been sentenced to long-term, state-run placement in a timely manner. That has created a backlog of about 65 teens at the city detention center, while prolonging the incarceration of some by as much as six months. They do not receive credit for time served in the city facility.

Pennsylvania DHS, meanwhile, says it “has made great progress,” including repurposing one of its facilities to add secure treatment beds and working to open another new 60-bed facility next month. But it has been constrained by staffing shortages and overwhelmed by a rising number of young people incarcerated for longer periods of time. A status report submitted last week shows the state considering unusual measures, such as mobilizing the National Guard to staff its facilities. (It will not do so, the report concluded.)

The state said it is also exploring holding youth in a unit on the grounds of State Correctional Institution Phoenix, a maximum-security men’s prison in Montgomery County.

Still, advocates for children say there is more the city could do on its own, such as locking up fewer kids for minor probation violations, or making full use of existing alternative-to-detention programs. They urged Philadelphia’s courts and child welfare agencies to work together to reduce the number of young people in custody.

Gabby Jackson, director of organizing and advocacy for the Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project, said her team met with 100 young people at JJSC, and learned 75% were there for probation or house-arrest violations. She said they told her of missing school because classrooms were full, being denied programs due to short-staffing, and of staff allowing or even encouraging fights as tempers in the cramped spaces flared. Kids also recounted sleeping on the floor of a gym, or crowded three into a two-person cell.

“They feel they treat them as if they’re animals,” Jackson said.

And while a judge has now twice ordered the state to remove youth and eliminate overcrowding, advocates say a year of litigation has had virtually no impact — leaving children to bear the consequences.

Marsha Levick, chief legal officer of Juvenile Law Center, called the stalemate “indefensible.”

Philadelphia’s juvenile center, which is only a decade old, was designed to temporarily hold kids ages 10 to 17 who are either awaiting trial, or are waiting to be assigned placement at a state-run or private facility to serve out their sentences.

The city used to contract with a number of private facilities around the state and country, but was forced to remove kids from those placements amid numerous abuse scandals. A long-fought effort to open a residential youth psychiatric treatment facility fell through in 2021 after staff were accused of misconduct within months of opening.

Other facilities decline to accept some children — resulting in a statewide shortage of secure beds that the Juvenile Court Judges Commission labeled a “crisis situation” in a February report.

The city has since put out two requests for proposals for new private juvenile placement providers — but received only one bid, from a Texas facility with a history of using disciplinary tactics including days-long isolation, mechanical restraints, and strip searches.

That left the state’s Youth Development Centers among the only options for kids to secure treatment.

But Pennsylvania DHS said those facilities are overwhelmed by demand and beset by staffing shortages. In its recent report, it said it took custody of 66 Philadelphia youth between July and September, double the number during the same period last year. It also blamed extenuating circumstances, such as the escape of nine young people from a Berks County detention center in September, which delayed the placement of others on the wait list.

As a result, wait times that used to be no more than 40 days have ballooned, with some as long as six months.

In June, Philly’s center reached its highest population levels ever, with 230 young people in custody — leaving dozens sleeping in offices, gyms or on the floors of cramped cells. Fights were breaking out, and some kids were building makeshift weapons to protect themselves, the city said in court filings.

Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler in response ordered the state to move 26 children out of the city detention center, then bring the facility to capacity levels within 30 days. She also directed the city to work with local stakeholders — such as judges and law enforcement officials — to resolve cases or change sentences to reduce the population.

But Ceisler denied one of the city’s main requests: to force the state to increase its staff-to-youth ratio. Pennsylvania says it must maintain a one-to-three ratio to maintain safety and has refused to increase it. Meanwhile, Philly’s facility is currently operating at a ratio of one staff to every 12 youth.

“Our children are very frustrated because the time they are sitting in JJSC, or lying on a mattress on the floor with lights on 24 hours a day, none of that time counts,” said Keisha Hudson, chief of the Defender Association of Philadelphia. She said some are even asking to be placed at the Texas facility despite concerns over the distance and treatment: “They’re asking their lawyers, ‘Please let me go because I’d be closer to coming home.’”

State DHS contends that the city bears some responsibility — and many youth advocates agree.

The JJSC’s population could be reduced if city departments and offices — including the District Attorney’s Office, Defender Association, juvenile court judges, and probation officials — worked together to resolve outstanding cases or change kids’ sentences, the state and advocates say.

They argue more cases could be resolved without trials. And young people already in the court system may be eligible for alternatives like GPS tracking, house arrest, or community-based programs.

But the decision to move a child to one of those programs lies in the hands of the judges, who have far-reaching discretion over kids’ placement.

“There are so many services that exist that the juvenile courts could be utilizing, and they purposely don’t,” said Kendra Van de Water, executive director of YEAH Philly, which works with young people in the criminal justice system.

A spokesperson for Pennsylvania DHS said a key contributor is Philadelphia judges sentencing youth “for periods of time far exceeding the traditional time frame for treatment.”

“DHS does not control timelines for stay or release. That decision lies solely with juvenile courts,” she said.

A spokesperson for the city’s Office of Children and Families said coordination with the courts for greater use of diversion programs lies in the hands of the District Attorney’s Office, which declined to comment for this article.

Michael Sontchi, head of the Defender Association’s Children and Youth Justice unit, said that 10 to 20 of the kids at the JJSC are eligible for release to Philadelphia DHS custody, but that the agency, which has its own backlogs, is not moving quickly enough to place them.

Philadelphia DHS acknowledged the backlog of releasable youth, but said that some “have open charges that include crimes of violence” and that social workers are working to find them appropriate placements.

Meanwhile, Levick said, every day a child spends behind bars impacts their future success, and said the photos underscore the need to reduce incarceration of children — pointing to research finding that it is harmful, traumatic and ultimately not conducive to public safety.

“Those pictures speak a thousand words,” she said. “We do not take a particularly humane approach to how we deal with children who come into contact with our justice system.”