YSRP is Featured on NBC Nightly News

The Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project was featured on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt on March 5, 2017, along with parent-leader Kameelah Davis-Spears, Wesley Stevenson and Professor Colleen Shanahan of Temple University Law School’s Justice Lab at the Sheller Center for Social Justice. We are grateful to Ronan Farrow and his team for shining a national spotlight on the practice in Philadelphia of charging parents, often working-poor parents, for the cost of their children’s incarceration, which leads to a double punishment. YSRP Co-Directors Lauren Fine and Joanna Visser Adjoian first learned about the practice from Kameelah at her kitchen table. Kameelah testified on Friday at a special Philadelphia City Council hearing alongside YSRP’s Lauren Fine and the Justice Lab’s Wesley Stevenson. YSRP is grateful to Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services for committing to end the practice of charging parents for this cost as of Friday, March 3, 2017.