Overcrowding at Philly's juvenile detention center creating problems
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Overcrowding inside Philadelphia's juvenile detention center has created problems and forced some tough decisions. Juvenile offenders may be transferred to facilities hours away, some as far as Texas.
There is an overcrowding problem at the Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center and the solution is to place the children elsewhere. Consider the fact one may go so far that you would need a plane ticket to visit.
An embrace outside Philadelphia's troubled and overcrowded Juvenile Justice Services Center. That's 19-year-old Bre Stoves.
After years in the juvie system, she's back to the spotlight for what she believes are glaring missteps within these walls.
"That's what they don't understand," Stoves said. "These systems [aren't] here to rehabilitate, they're here to create repeat offenders. Because a lot of times kids come in and once … they say, it's easy to get in, it's hard to get out."
Already in crisis mode, the center's overcrowding forced the city last month to sue the state in an effort to shrink the youth population inside these walls.
A judge responded, ordering youth offenders to be sent to other detention centers, including possible placement in Texas and northeastern Pennsylvania, according to a city spokesperson.
"Sending them hours away where their attorneys have a difficult time reaching them, to a part of the state which they are not familiar with and their families can't go and visit, that's not fair," Nicole El with the Defenders Association of Philadelphia said.
The Juvenile Law Center tells CBS Philadelphia they've learned child offenders may be sent to the former PA Child Care in Pittston, some 90 miles north.
That detention center was at the heart of what became known as "the kids for cash" scandal.
It was 10 years ago two Luzerne County judges were convicted in connection to sending kids to detention centers they had a financial interest in.
"Why is our city still sending kids hours away to be subjected to more abuse and neglect?" Kendra Van de Water with YEAH Philly said.
According to the city's Department for Human Services, the state must take custody of at least 15 children from the Juvenile Justice Center in Philadelphia.
The Juvenile Law Center says the number they believe is closer to five dozen.
There's no telling when that might happen.