Pennsylvania needs to stop prosecuting children as adults

Imagine only seeing the sun for one hour a day while crammed into a 6-by-8-foot cell. Now imagine that you are only 16 years old, yet to be found guilty, and you are spending your days in an adult jail when you should be in school or spending time with your family. This is the reality of many children charged as adults through “direct file.”

Direct file, or “statutory exclusion,” is a provision where kids under 18 are automatically prosecuted as adults for certain offenses, without the chance of a review by a juvenile court judge. This practice often forces the youth to be held in adult jails before trial and, if found guilty, adult prisons. And it doesn’t affect all children equally — according to the Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Task Force’s findings, 56% of kids convicted as adults are Black boys, even though they make up just 7% of Pennsylvania’s youth population. This disparity is even starker than the disproportionate treatment that Black youth face in other parts of the justice system.

Kids placed in adult prisons are more likely to suffer mental and physical abuse and are 36 times more likely to commit suicide if housed in an adult jail or prison. This practice is terrible for youth, but it also is not improving safety — minors who serve sentences in adult facilities are 34 times more likely to reoffend than their counterparts in the juvenile justice system.

Children do not make decisions like adults and don’t think about consequences in the same way, so using harsher sentences as a deterrent just doesn’t work. Direct file is also inefficient and a waste of taxpayer dollars. The Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Task Force found that 60% of direct file cases are either dismissed or withdrawn or end up back in the juvenile system after kids have often spent months in adult jails, at great cost to both their well-being and the commonwealth’s pocketbook.

The Urban League of Philadelphia stands in strong support of the bipartisan legislation we introduced that would eliminate the practice of automatically charging children as adults without the review of a Family Court judge. Our legislation would require that all cases against children originate in juvenile court, while still allowing for a child to be charged as an adult in some cases. However, the decision would be made by a juvenile court judge, who is best equipped to make this determination.

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The practice of direct file impacts youth every day in Pennsylvania. Jeff Fleischer, CEO of Youth Advocate Programs, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit focused on alternatives to incarceration, told the state Senate Judiciary Committee in May that many youth who come into the juvenile justice system with serious offenses are victims themselves and have experienced significant trauma. Spending time in an adult system not designed to rehabilitate them or meet their treatment needs sets them on a path that’s very difficult to recover from. Why lock kids away when it leads to more recidivism?

Juvenile justice reform must be at the center of policy considerations in Harrisburg. Advocates are looking to us to put the Juvenile Justice Task Force’s recommendations into action. Children in our communities are not being treated as children, despite the fact they are still learning and growing.

“Why lock kids away when it leads to more recidivism?”

Senate Bill 1240 will have an enormously positive impact on Pennsylvania youth and will instill more confidence in our justice system. Nothing is more important than helping our kids; they are the next generation of leaders and the future of the commonwealth. This legislation will reduce recidivism, control costs, make our communities safer, and allow all young people the opportunity to grow and change in an environment that is designed for them.

Camera Bartolotta is a Republican state senator. She represents Beaver, Greene, and Washington Counties. Anthony H. Williams is a Democratic state senator. He represents parts of Philadelphia and Delaware County.