It has been more than a decade since the “Kids for Cash” juvenile court scandal in Luzerne County stunned the nation.

As a result, two judges were criminally charged with giving children long sentences to fill for-profit juvenile detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks.

In 2019, Gov. Tom Wolf convened a bipartisan task force to review the juvenile justice system after a newspaper’s investigation exposed decades of abuse and cover-up at Glen Mills Schools, the nation’s oldest boys’ reform school.

The results of the report were released nearly two years ago, but no major reform has taken place.

The 64-page report had 35 recommendations to make the system better.

The commission — comprised of juvenile justice advocates, lawyers, judges and lawmakers — recommended 35 improvements to standardize the system, emphasize treatment alternatives to detention, and ensure fair and equal treatment across the commonwealth.

There were no surprises in the summation of the task force’s findings.

It recommended increased oversight of detention facilities and concluded the state needs to stop removing so many young people from their homes and sending them to institutions for rehabilitation.

The study also found the state locks up too many children, often for nonviolent crimes.

The task force found that most of those who enter the system “have little or no prior history of delinquency, have not committed a felony or a person offense, and do not score as high risk to reoffend.”

The report also found that diversion programs designed to reintegrate offenders into society are underutilized.

It said keeping children out of the system is a goal, and community-based or diversionary programs are preferred to court-ordered facilities.

Earlier this month, two state senators said they plan to introduce the Juvenile Justice Policy Act, which would convert many of those recommendations into law.

The commission’s and the lawmakers’ proposals offer the prospect of more consistent, fairer and rehabilitative rather than merely punitive juvenile justice, without imperiling public safety.

We urge swift action by the Legislature to approve the bill to implement these long-overdue reforms.

— JGG