They criticized a plan to move some of the youth to a state facility in Luzerne County.
The advocates gathered outside the city’s Juvenile Justice Service Center (PJJSC), their call for change echoing off its walls.
“It’s time for us to rethink why we are detaining these children,” said Nicole El of the Defenders Association. She said dangerous overcrowding inside the center was not just because the state has refused to take youth who’ve already been sentenced, but because too many youth are put in detention in the first place.
“Shuffling kids from one detention facility to another is worse than what some might call a band-aid solution,” she said, “particularly when we’re moving them out of the communities and sending them far away.”
Listen to the full KYW News Coverage of our Press Conference at the JJSC Here
