IT CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE – AND IT NEVER SHOULD Every child should be safe from harm, but there is a special obligation to kids who are in the child welfare system because they were abused or neglected. It’s hard to forget the case, more than a decade ago,...
Philadelphia’s Child Welfare System Is Failing Children — It Must Be Reformed Now (April 11, 2025) Children First is heartbroken for the children and families failed by Philadelphia’s child welfare system, as revealed in this week’s Philadelphia Inquirer series on the...
BUILDING SAFER COMMUNITIES & BRIGHTER FUTURES Do children as young as ten years old end up shackled and in prison? In PA, yes, they do. Imagine seeing a 10-year-old lying on a bare floor in shackles. State Rep. Rick Krajewski from Philadelphia did. At a...
More than 17,000 Pennsylvania children were charged in juvenile court in 2023, and 2/3 of the charges were for misdemeanors or summary offenses, like loitering and disorderly conduct. For those children and their communities, diversion is a better alternative than...
PHILLY COURTS DOUBLES DOWN ON LOCKING KIDS UP Just when we thought it was safe(r) to be a kid in Philadelphia, we learn that Philly locks up young people at a rate about four times the national average; more than New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. In our...
Children First Condemns Use of Youth Seclusion at the Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center January 10, 2025 Children First is deeply disturbed by the findings in a recent Philadelphia Office of the Youth Ombudsperson (OYO) report on the use of seclusion at...
