PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Plans for a youth placement facility on the grounds of a maximum security men’s prison in Montgomery County are receiving backlash from youth advocates.
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal for the $18.1 million juvenile justice facility is an attempt to address the dangerous overcrowding at state facilities. The 48-bed unit would be built out at SCI Phoenix in Collegeville to house male juveniles but would be separate from the men’s prison.
According to the Department of Human Services, the new Youth Development Center will provide rehabilitative and treatment services geared toward cognitive behavior therapy as well as trauma-informed therapy. In addition, $2.5 million has been proposed for education services for youth detained at the center, to allow them the opportunity to gain credit toward graduation or earn a GED.
However, advocates at the nonprofit coalition Care, Not Control say the proposal is part of a growing trend of not investing in troubled youth, but instead, further traumatizing and dehumanizing them.
“Community services and schools and all the supports for young people to help them to thrive are underfunded. It's backwards to continue expanding that system,” said Autumn Talley, campaign director for Care Not Control. She says it's upsetting that youth are not being set up for success.
“What we will set them up to do is to go to jail, whether that's getting trapped in this system of fines and fees and just not being able to escape from that, and then having your freedom taken away.”
While she understands the need to alleviate overcrowding, Talley says the solution isn’t just to build more facilities to incarcerate young people. “We know that sending youth to detention increases the recidivism rates,” Talley said.
Shapiro’s office, however, says the governor’s new budget proposal does call for an investment in youth, with a $100 million increase in initiatives to reduce gun violence. That includes $11.5 million in funding for more after-school programs and learning opportunities and $11 million to create and improve shared spaces, including parks, streets and playgrounds.