Pennsylvanians can be proud of a lot of things about our state, but how we treat children in the juvenile justice system is not one of them. In fact, we should hang our heads in shame.
Pennsylvania locks of far more youth than many other states and almost twice as many as a comparable state like Illinois. That’s according to a recently released report from the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI).
Wanda Bertram and Brian Nam-Sonenstein from the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) met with PennLive’s Editorial board to provide some of the stunning statistics from its “Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2025” report.
On any given day, they say, Pennsylvania confines about 33 kids for underage drinking. And almost 70 kids a day are confined for the nebulous term of “incorrigibility.” They have the c