PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Chaotic conditions in Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system (JJSC) burst into view earlier this month, when staff members testified before City Council about overcrowding and understaffing that has left them shaken.
But for the young people still held in detention, the experience can be truly terrifying.
Quasir Easley ended up in the JJSC in September after one day of several bad decisions that both he and his father say were out of character.
“I never really get into trouble, but in that 20 hours, I don’t know what happened. I just made a bad mistake,” said the teen.
Details of his offenses are not public because he is 14 years old. However, his life until then is well-documented, according to his father Sam Easley.
“Quasir has always been an honor-roll student, from third grade to now,” Easley said. “I have all of it, all his awards, [including] from this year.”
Related
The teen was attending class at Community College of Philadelphia through the Parkway School in Center City. Since being ordered to the Juvenile Justice Services Center in West Philly, he sits in a room all day — a mattress on the floor, no classes, no exercise, no visits.
And one day, in a van on the way back from a court appearance, while in handcuffs, he was attacked by six other youths. He still doesn’t know how they got their handcuffs off.
“There were four people behind me and one person on each side of me, so I couldn’t see,” he said. “Both my eyes were black and swollen. My right eye was shut. It’s still bloodshot. I had bruises on my ribs and stuff.”
Such is life in the overcrowded, understaffed JJSC. It is a problem that has been building for years.
Daquan Carter was there for a period of three months, which ended in February. He still has a scar on his face, where he hit a metal table after being punched without provocation, he said, by a 20-year-old being held there too. (The facility holds youth aged 10-20.)
He lost 20 pounds because other detainees took his food. He was injured in a van accident on the way to family court for a hearing. Other youth put soapy water under his door to make him slip, he said.
And his life was threatened.
“Once, I got in the shower, somebody came in there and put a knife to my neck,” Carter, 17, said. “I don’t know what he made the knife out of, but he put it to my neck.”
His mother, Tanja Carter, said he stopped taking showers after that and still bears the emotional scars.
“We do therapy and it was not court-stipulated,” she said. “It’s because – I know when you commit a crime, you are to get a punishment – but he is absolutely traumatized by that experience in that facility.”
City officials acknowledge many of the problems. They blame — and, in fact, have sued — the commonwealth for failing to take custody of young people who have been ordered to a state facility.
In a declaration filed with the suit, deputy commissioner Gary Williams of the city’s Department of Human Services, which runs the center, describes a “state of crisis.”
“Overcrowding and staffing issues at the PJJSC have made it unsafe to move youth for meals, school, and programming,” he wrote. “Movement must be carefully monitored and coordinated to avoid safety issues. As a direct result of the overcrowding, the PJJSC is currently dangerously understaffed.”
Related
Williams said the overcrowding started in January of 2020, when the state started leaving adjudicated youth at the JJSC for longer periods, and has snowballed so that there are about 220 youth in a facility built for 184, including 68 who have been ordered to a state facility.
Most of those, he said, have been waiting more than a month and none of the time they remain in the JJSC counts toward their sentence.
“Daily life for a resident in current conditions means far more fights than when our census was lower,” according to Williams.
“These deteriorating conditions, coupled with demoralizing waiting periods for youth, are resulting in frustration that leads to more physical confrontations with staff and each other. Since August 2022, we have had to call the police twice to assist our staff members in quelling large fights.”
According to Williams, if the state took the youth who should be in their custody, conditions would improve “overnight.”
Pennsylvania officials say state facilities are full, too.
“The issue at hand is the need to maintain safe operations at our facilities as well,” said Ali Fogarty, State DHS communications director, in an email.
Fogarty noted that the courts control where youthful offenders are placed, and only the courts can discharge youth from secure detention.
Advocates say they believe that judges in juvenile court, who are seeing ever-younger defendants accused of ever-more violent crimes, are ordering more youth to detention instead of alternatives at home or in the community.
Related
“Simply transporting young people who are waiting for placements, without addressing the underlying needs of the detained population, will not improve the situation,” the Defender Association said in a statement.
Sarah Morris, of the Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project said, in fact, it could make it worse.
“When you take young people and put them in facilities that are not meeting their needs, that are overcrowded, where they’re exposed to harm and trauma, it doesn’t make them less likely to commit violence when they get home,” Morris said. “It makes them more likely to.”
“Many children held at JJSC can easily and safely come home,” added Malik Pickett, staff attorney at the Juvenile Law Center.
Daquan Carter has regained the weight that he lost at JJSC since he’s been home, but he still has trouble sleeping.
“I still have a little bit of worry,” he said, “but the longer I’m staying home, I’m getting used to being around my family again. I’m eating constantly. It’s just my sleeping habits I have to get used to.”
For Easley, the nightmare continues.
“The judge wants to send me away to placement for six to nine months,” he said, clearly worried.
His father is fighting to prevent that.
“I don’t blame the judge. I see what’s going on in this city,” said Sam Easley. “I tried to keep Quasir away from all that, but he made a mistake. He accepted his responsibility and owned up to what he did. If anybody deserves a second chance, it’s Quasir.”
Quasir was studying African culture and civilization at CCP after his arrest in August, while at home on a GPS monitor, but his father said the judge revoked his home placement in September.
“It just seems like a waste for him to be sitting on the floor and now getting beat up,” his father said. “I worry about him every day.”
Related
