A womb-to-prison pipeline | Morning Newsletter

Morning, Philly.

A Philadelphia teen grew up in the city’s child-welfare system. When she gave birth in juvenile detention, the same system took her daughter. Her story is an example of what some advocates call a womb-to-prison pipeline, in which young people with child-welfare histories are overrepresented at every stage of the juvenile and criminal legal systems.

And SPS Technologies was once an anchor in Abington, but the massive fire has prompted questions about its future. Read on for these stories and more.

— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

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Denaisa Hansberry entered the child-welfare system at age 10, and later landed in juvenile detention. When she gave birth in the city juvenile detention center at 19, her daughter was taken into protective custody — resetting a cycle of system involvement that can feel like quicksand to those caught in it.

Hansberry’s path into juvenile detention is a startlingly common one for young people in the care of the Philadelphia Department of Human Services: Philly teens with active DHS cases are about 11 times more likely than others to land in the city’s juvenile hall, an Inquirer analysis of city data found.

City officials say it’s not a causal pipeline, but a result of root causes such as poverty. But advocates say the correlation is also a result of repeated system failures and biases, as well as the extra layers of surveillance to which kids in the system are subjected.

In her own words: “I’m not saying everything is the system’s fault, because I can take accountability for some things I did,” Hansberry told The Inquirer. “But a lot of it had to do with being taken away from my mom, being around strangers, because the system thought it was best for me — and it wasn’t.”

Reporter Samantha Melamed investigates the correlation between more child-welfare contact and greater risk of arrest.

For the past century, Abington campus of SPS Technologies has employed hundreds of local residents at a time and served as an anchor in countless families’ lives.

🔩 But since last week’s four-alarm fire that decimated the 105-year-old factory, environmental concerns are complicating whether or not the aerospace manufacturer should rebuild.

🔩 The facility leaves a conflicted legacy for its workers whether it cleans up or shuts down.

🔩 SPS is a “tough place,” a former employee told The Inquirer. “It’s dirty, it’s noisy. The working conditions weren’t great, but it was a good place for me to land.”

Reporters Beatrice Forman and Jesse Bunch have the story on SPS Technologies’ history and fraught future.

A Philly university’s connection to a probe into unusual gambling activity may be part of a wider ring that touches both college basketball and the NBA, according to reports. Which local school is implicated?

A) Drexel University

B) University of Pennsylvania

C) Temple University

D) La Salle University

Think you know? Check your answer.

💐 Planning: A visit to the 2025 Philadelphia Flower Show with this guide.

⚾ Delighted by: Bryce Harper’s new Phillies Phanatic tattoo.

🪤 Eating: Two great cheesesteaks in South Jersey (!).

❌ Considering: The impact of federal workers cuts on these local former IRS employees.

Hint: Park near the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge

INFERNAL QUARKS

Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Marie McCarthy, who solved Wednesday’s anagram: Please Touch Museum. The cultural institution is one of three that had been planning a 2026 Children’s World’s Fair, but now say it won’t happen because they couldn’t secure the necessary funding.

🃏 One last whimsical thing: The local clown community has found its home at West Philly yoga studio Studio 34, which offers events such as Fool’s Yoga, Clowning for Collective Healing, and Clown Slam.

“Clown is one of the most important aspects of my life because it allows me a framework to engage with everything that I encounter,” clown educator Danielle Levsky told The Inquirer. “When I approach it through the lens of clown, I can make it curious and playful and inquisitive rather than defensive.”

See you back here tomorrow, same time, same place.

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