More than a year in the making, the results of a review of the state’s juvenile justice system were released late last month.

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

The allegations came more than a decade after the “Kids for Cash” scandal, in which two Luzerne County judges were charged with giving children long sentences to fill for-profit juvenile detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks.

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

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

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

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

The task force found 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.

White youth with more serious offenses “are more likely to be diverted out of the system, less likely to face charges than black and brown youth who have much more minor charges,” said Helen Gym, a member of the task force.

The report calls for a ban on strip searches, solitary confinement and certain restraints. It also would create the Office of Child Advocate and eliminate fines and court costs.

Currently, there are no statewide guidelines for judges to take into account a young person’s risk of reoffending or prior history when determining punishment.

And young people sent out of their homes to residential facilities often end up staying there for several years, statistics show.

If implemented, the task force said the recommendations would cut the number of youth in residential facilities by 39% and would save an estimated $81 million,

That money, the task force said, could be reinvested in nonresidential programs, increased oversight and restitution funds for victims.

The report calls for “legislative remedies, court remedies, or administrative functions.”

The report also calls for money to implement these changes.

That’s usually a hard sell in Harrisburg, but both parties and both the House and Senate must cooperate to achieve the report’s goal.

Good luck with that.

“We have to do better by our youth,” Wolf said in a statement following the release of the report.

We agree.

— JGG