Priority Issues

Direct file is the practice of bypassing the juvenile system and automatically charging certain children—accused of the most serious offenses—as if they were adults. This practice robs the children of the right to be treated as kids, and also strips judges of the discretion to determine whether a child should be tried in adult court. It also results in children being held in adult jails, a practice which decades of research show is harmful to children and future public safety. Prior to 1995, children were adjudicated in the juvenile system for all offenses except murder. The practice of direct file has driven racial disparities in the system, while fueling mass incarceration. Legislative reform would ensure the right of kids to be treated as kids by ensuring all cases begin in juvenile court.

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Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project

Youth Art and Self Empowerment Project

While the 13th amendment of the U.S. Constitution largely abolished slavery it allowed it to persist as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. In Pennsylvania prisons, people are paid extremely substandard wages and are often paid just 23 cents to 50 cents an hour for their labor. Furthermore, you can be ordered to work against your will and failure to comply with such an order is classified as insubordination which can result in solitary confinement. And although you regain your voting rights in PA when you are released from state prison, no one currently incarcerated on a felony conviction is allowed to vote in an election. Legislation can end involuntary servitude and disenfranchisement for people currently incarcerated in Pennsylvania. Returning citizens must be treated as first-class citizens with full rights, dignity, and opportunity.

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Why Not Prosper

In 2009, the Commonwealth began charging a co-pay to incarcerated people seeking medical care.  When going to the doctor means running out of money to call home or buy other essentials, some incarcerated people end up deferring care until a minor health problem turns into something more serious. This raises health care costs in the long run, leaving the prisons with more complicated and expensive ailments to treat. It also jeopardizes public health when incarcerated people aren’t treated for infectious diseases when they cannot afford the co-pay and those diseases spread to other people in custody and staff who ultimately carry it into the community. The Department of Corrections and the Shapiro administration can and should end this cruel and irresponsible practice now.

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Pennsylvania Prison Society

There are about 50 Pennsylvanians facing capital trials at any given time. Prosecutors across the state use the threat of a death sentence to coerce guilty pleas, induce cooperation against codefendants, and accrue political capital. Although the Governor has continued the moratorium on executions, which prevents a death sentence from being carried out, any future Governor could change the policy and a permanent solution is sorely needed. Legislation that abolishes the death penalty would ensure that our Commonwealth never executes another person again, and that everyone can exercise their right to trial without their life being threatened.

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Atlantic Center for Capital Representation

Pennsylvanians Against the Death Penalty

Programs that divert children from incarceration and to community programs and restorative justice reduce recidivism. Through legislative reform and further budget investment in diversion programs, we can set young people accused of criminal offenses up for success later in life and make our communities safer.

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Children First

In Pennsylvania, a person can be found guilty of violating Section 2502(b) (murder of the second degree; oftentimes referred to as “felony murder”) without having committed, intended to commit, or even having knowledge of the committed murder. Pennsylvania’s application of the felony murder rule is particularly extreme and bizarre because the mandatory minimum sentence is life without parole which is the same sentence for first degree murder, a willful and intentional homicide. Legislative reform would end life without parole for second degree murder and would provide retroactive relief by allowing parole consideration after 25 years for adults, 20 years for 15-17 year-olds, and 15 years for children under 15.

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Amistad Law Project

Amistad Movement Power

According to the National Institute of Corrections, the cost of incarcerating people 55 or older is often two to three times higher compared to a non-elderly incarcerated person. Despite attempts to reduce the state prison population, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections budget is over $3 billion dollars per year—the third largest budget line behind Human Services and Education—and our large population of people sentenced to die in prison will only drive that cost higher. As of early 2025 there were nearly 11,000 incarcerated people over the age of 50. A system of geriatric parole would reunite families and alleviate a significant burden on PA taxpayers.

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Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration

Pennsylvania does not yet provide the adequate funding or oversight needed for public defenders to provide Constitutionally mandated effective assistance of counsel. Prior to 2023, Pennsylvania was one of only two states that did not provide any state funding whatsoever for public defenders. While the 7.5 million that the General Assembly has allocated since 2023 is a good start, more money is needed to achieve parity with resources for the prosecution.

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ACLU of Pennsylvania

Allegheny Lawyers Initiative for Justice

Defender Association of Philadelphia

Public Defenders Association of Pennsylvania

When serious crimes are being investigated, it’s critically important for supervising law enforcement officers, prosecutors and defense attorneys to be able to be certain that any admission of guilt was not made under coercion. This protects not only the accused, but also the victim and/or their family members who are not served by wrongful convictions which let the real perpetrator evade justice. It also protects tax payers who end up footing the bill when people are wrongfully convicted due to a coerced interrogation. Legislative reform would require electronic recording of custodial interrogations when a serious crime is being investigated.

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Pennsylvania Innocence Project

Pennsylvania’s current system of ‘medical transfer’ is so narrow that in over 10 years less than 70 people have been granted release from prison. The vast majority of people in prison with a terminal or serious life-limiting illness die in prison hundreds of miles away from their families. Legislative reform can create a system of medical release that saves taxpayer money and reunites people with their families when they have a terminal illness, a very serious illness that stops them from being able to complete one or more activities of daily living or a complex illness that will result in death unless they are released from DOC custody to seek life saving treatment.

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FAMM

Healing Communities PA

Straight Ahead

Working Families Party

On any given day over a thousand people are held in solitary confinement in PA prisons deprived of contact with other human beings that we, as members of a species that evolved to be highly social, need to stay healthy and survive. The United Nations recognized that solitary has dire mental health consequences, even for those with no previous mental illness and United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, issued a report concluding that more than 15 days in solitary confinement should be considered a violation of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Legislative reform can eliminate the practice of torture through social isolation by allowing people in restrictive housing units communal out of cell time and by establishing stronger criteria for what specific offenses allow correctional facilities to remove individuals from the general population.

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Human Rights Coalition

Pennsylvania has the second highest percentage of our citizens on parole in the country, and the highest incarceration rate in the Northeast. More than half of the people in PA prisons are there because of parole violations. Parole subjects people to ongoing correctional control and surveillance, impeding their everyday activities with a gauntlet of rules and restrictions. Yet data shows that parole has diminishing returns since 70% of recidivism occurs within the first three years of release. And for people over age 40, the rates of recidivism are even lower. Legislative reform can create opportunities for early parole termination for people on long term parole who have come home from prison and are successfully rejoining their communities.

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Abolitionist Law Center

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