Monday, Mourning

Monday is Memorial Day.

On that solemn day, we remember the countless men and women who lost their lives serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, to whom we owe a debt that can never be repaid.

This Memorial Day, our hearts will be particularly heavy as we find ourselves in the third month of this pandemic. As the national death toll will soon breach 100,000, flags have been ordered to fly at half-staff on all federal buildings.

Our thoughts linger on those front line heroes who put their lives at risk every day to save those severely sickened by COVID-19, particularly those who have died as a result of contracting the disease while healing others.   

And we can only offer our condolences to those who have lost parents and grand parents included in the tens of thousands of seniors in nursing homes across the country whose tragic deaths may have been prevented, as reported this week, had our government acted just one week sooner. In the Commonwealth, where, to date, there have been 66,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 65% of those who died did so in congregate care.   

There’s yet another group living in congregate care facilities weighing heavily on hearts. In Pennsylvania, there are nearly 1,700 youths in detention facilities, shelter care, group homes, etc. As seniors are in nursing homes, the staff and youth in these facilities are at grave risk, trapped in accommodations poorly designed to survive a nationwide pandemic. How long until there are confirmed fatalities?

On April 26, the Washington-based nonprofit The Sentencing Project reported that across the U.S., 150 detained juveniles and 283 staff tested positive for COVID.

As of May 20, the numbers soared to 467 juveniles and 551 staff. The Sentencing Project believes the real numbers are much higher due to the limited amount of testing.

Since the shutdown an indeterminant number of children have been released to protect their safety, but certainly not enough to ensure that a temporary stay in state licensed or operated facilities does not end up being a death sentence for these young people.

On April 1, 2020 the Juvenile Law Center, the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project and DLA Piper filed a King’s Bench petition before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of all Pennsylvania youth currently held in county detention centers or other correctional/residential placements, and on behalf of all youth charged as adults. They asked the Court for a review of every youth in custody and to provide for the immediate release of medically vulnerable youth as well as those who pose no immediate risk of harm to others.

A large share of these youth are behind bars for minor offenses associated with probation violations including truancy, curfew violations or other non-violent probation transgressions.

The PA Supreme Court denied their petition and prescribed a set of weaker provisions, including reviewing the facilities, discretionary review of individual juveniles, as well as requiring judges to undertake efforts to limit the introduction of new youths into facilities for the duration of the pandemic.

The toll that COVID-19 takes on children in delinquent care and their mental health and well-being is considerable as they are mostly isolated from seeing their families in-person, and in some instances they are isolated from others in their placement facilities.

In COVID hotspot cities like New York and Louisiana, riots and escapes have been reported as fear and frustration boil over.

For this Memorial Day, we ask you to say a prayer and take action to protect these trapped children by posting the text of this newsletter on your social media and share it with your friends and family. Together we must call upon our local and state officials for the rapid review of every case of youth in congregate care with the goal of finding safer places for them to live, lest our hearts break again in mourning the senseless death of even one.