Pictured: Jill Deiley (DOC Senior Policy Analysist), Brad Bridge (Philadelphia Defenders Association), Arianna Freeman (Federal Defenders Association), Jackie Rupert (CCC #2 Director), Helen Levin (Philadelphia Defenders Association), Brooke McCarthy (Juvenile Law Center).
On November 19, "Juvenile" Lifer project manager Robert Hammond conducted the Department of Corrections' last video conference (VC) from the Philadelphia Community Corrections Center (CCC) #2.
In 2012 a legal ruling declared it was unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile offender to a mandatory life without parole sentence.
Corrections Secretary John Wetzel gathered DOC officials to set the tone and scope of work to ensure that "juvenile" lifers in Pennsylvania – individuals who previously had no way of being released from prison other than a change in sentence or death – now were provided with programming that only had been provided to individuals who would be released. That included educational classes, treatment programs and specially-designed programs just for them to help long-term inmates be brought up-to-date with society and technology in the community, i.e. cell phones, computers. These inmates were moved to the top of the list of inmates requiring reentry programming that included reunification with family and friends, resume writing, etc.
Part of the DOC's work to prepare the "juvenile" lifers for possible release included the holding of monthly video conferences (VCs) that allowed these inmates to speak with DOC officials and even public defenders.
The purpose of the VCs was to disseminate pertinent information to the "juvenile" lifer population regarding their situation to prevent anxiety and increase knowledge regarding the Supreme Court rulings.
The VCs were broken up into four meetings -- female, Eastern Region, Central Region and Western Region. Each VC lasted approximately one hour.
The inmates asked questions regarding their release – would they go to a center or to their approved home plan, access to health care and psychological services, housing and family reunification.
At the time of the 2012 ruling, Pennsylvania had the largest number of "juvenile" lifers … 522. Since the ruling was issued and as of November 2018, 388 of the 519 cases have been resentenced, with 158 of those 388 inmates having been released from prison.
The DOC now has just more than 90 "juvenile" lifer cases that are awaiting resentencing. The DOC and its employees will continue to prepare these individuals for potential release.
Other highlights of the "Juvenile" Lifer project:
- We partnered with attorneys (public defenders, federal, and private) and community partners to provide workshops, friends and family day events and town hall meetings to educate families of this unique phenomenon in U.S. history.
- We created institutional and community "juvenile" lifer support groups to help the inmates cope with their possible release or new opportunity at freedom.
- We collaborated with the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole to ensure that all board members we aware of the uniqueness off the "juvenile" lifer case. We held monthly DOC/PBPP/BCC "juvenile" lifer meetings to go over major issues, "juvenile" lifer parole cases and processes to ensure that these inmates are receiving adequate services pre- and post-release.
- We offered virtual reality to "juvenile" lifers to ease the stress of going to a CCC.
- We provided monthly psych contacts for all "juvenile" lifers.
- PBPP Chairman Leo Dunn toured the facilities giving presentations on the prole process to the "juvenile" lifer population.
- We provided videos of the Commonwealth v. Batts case that dealt with the incorrigibility of "juvenile" lifers.