Heather Keafer, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, said the decision to stop charging parents will go into effect immediately. Philadelphia announced its decision just before a City Council hearing on the detention fees, which was scheduled for Friday afternoon. Billing parents for incarcerating their children goes far beyond Philadelphia and is rooted in decades-old social policy based on the belief that families were shedding responsibility for delinquent children and expecting the government to pick up the tab. Until the shift in Philadelphia, parents of roughly 730 detained children there were being billed up to $1,000 a month to pay for their children’s stints in juvenile detention, even though many are so poor they could afford monthly installments of only $5. Keafer said Friday the city will also move to stop collecting debt from any parents who currently owe money.

Source: Washington Post March 03, 2017 19:03 UTC