President's Message, May 2023
Mary Ann Rigas, MD, FAAP
Dear Fellow PA AAP Member,
Thank you to all who joined us for an inspiring and challenging Advocacy Day in Harrisburg earlier this month! We were fortunate to have twenty pediatricians from across the state congregate to meet with eleven state senators and twelve state representatives. As I mentioned in last month’s e-newsletter, our primary focus was on juvenile justice reform, and specifically on four bills that will be coming to a vote in the Senate in the near future. Senate Bills 167-170 recently passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee and will now advance to the full Senate for a vote. These bills would limit the use of out-of-home placement for juveniles, direct states to fund public defenders for juveniles charged with criminal offenses, would require more frequent disposition review hearings, and would make it easier for certain juveniles to have their records expunged, respectively. You can read more about the bills here.
We were joined in our legislative meetings by Andre Simms, who leads the organization DayOneNotDayTwo, and a group of his colleagues from the Delaware County Youth Participatory Defense Hub. Their personal stories of their experiences with the juvenile justice system painted a powerful picture of the trauma that Pennsylvania youth experience in our juvenile “in-justice” system. What struck me most was the disproportionate representation of youth of color in detention within our system. This appears to result from a combination of factors: children of color experience a greater number of adverse childhood experiences that put them at risk of committing offenses AND they are detained at a higher rate if they commit an offense. While the juvenile detention center in Philadelphia is filled to capacity with children who have committed minor offenses such as fighting with siblings and possession of marijuana, only a fraction of beds are filled in detention centers in other parts of the state, where children undoubtedly commit similar offenses, yet are dealt with in more supportive ways. During our press conference, Andre and our own Secretary-Treasurer, Toni Richards-Rowley, challenged us to reform the juvenile justice system in Pennsylvania, replacing detention with appropriate family- and community-based systems that nurture rather than punish children.
As we prepared to head to the Capitol, we learned that a gun violence prevention legislation package was headed to the House floor for a vote that week. As you may know, injury from firearms is now the leading cause of death among children and teens in Pennsylvania, and an average of 118 children and teens die by guns each year in our state. This package is the first gun violence prevention legislation to be introduced in Pennsylvania in ten years. House Bills 338, 714, 731, and 1018 would institute lost and stolen reporting requirements, universal background checks, gun lock requirements, and Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOS) in Pennsylvania. You can read more about these bills here.
While it was very exciting to meet with our legislators as these critical bills came to the House and Senate floors, we did encounter mixed responses, as we might expect in a state as diverse as ours. While it is immensely gratifying to engage with legislators whose goals align with ours, it is a little (or a lot) more challenging to try to find common ground with a legislator who does not share our point of view. Approaching these legislators head on with evidence-based arguments and
On the other hand, by sharing evidence with legislators and conveying our passion to protect and support all Pennsylvania children, pediatricians can have an influence on policymakers’ decision-making, and I am confident that we were able to achieve this at Advocacy Day this year!
As pediatricians, we work to support the health, safety, and wellbeing of children every day in our practice settings, but we can only do so much to protect children’s health inside our offices. Pennsylvania’s juvenile “in-justice” and gun violence crises are not something that can be solved by writing a prescription. We hope that you will join us in advocating for this critical children’s health legislation by contacting your legislators and encouraging them to vote YES on these bills. If you are a PA AAP member, you can visit our Advocacy Action Center to submit an advocacy letter to your State Senator and Representative on one or both of these issues. As always, thank you for joining us in our efforts to make Pennsylvania a healthier and safer state for children.
Sincerely,
Thank you to all who joined us for an inspiring and challenging Advocacy Day in Harrisburg earlier this month! We were fortunate to have twenty pediatricians from across the state congregate to meet with eleven state senators and twelve state representatives. As I mentioned in last month’s e-newsletter, our primary focus was on juvenile justice reform, and specifically on four bills that will be coming to a vote in the Senate in the near future. Senate Bills 167-170 recently passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee and will now advance to the full Senate for a vote. These bills would limit the use of out-of-home placement for juveniles, direct states to fund public defenders for juveniles charged with criminal offenses, would require more frequent disposition review hearings, and would make it easier for certain juveniles to have their records expunged, respectively. You can read more about the bills here.
We were joined in our legislative meetings by Andre Simms, who leads the organization DayOneNotDayTwo, and a group of his colleagues from the Delaware County Youth Participatory Defense Hub. Their personal stories of their experiences with the juvenile justice system painted a powerful picture of the trauma that Pennsylvania youth experience in our juvenile “in-justice” system. What struck me most was the disproportionate representation of youth of color in detention within our system. This appears to result from a combination of factors: children of color experience a greater number of adverse childhood experiences that put them at risk of committing offenses AND they are detained at a higher rate if they commit an offense. While the juvenile detention center in Philadelphia is filled to capacity with children who have committed minor offenses such as fighting with siblings and possession of marijuana, only a fraction of beds are filled in detention centers in other parts of the state, where children undoubtedly commit similar offenses, yet are dealt with in more supportive ways. During our press conference, Andre and our own Secretary-Treasurer, Toni Richards-Rowley, challenged us to reform the juvenile justice system in Pennsylvania, replacing detention with appropriate family- and community-based systems that nurture rather than punish children.
As we prepared to head to the Capitol, we learned that a gun violence prevention legislation package was headed to the House floor for a vote that week. As you may know, injury from firearms is now the leading cause of death among children and teens in Pennsylvania, and an average of 118 children and teens die by guns each year in our state. This package is the first gun violence prevention legislation to be introduced in Pennsylvania in ten years. House Bills 338, 714, 731, and 1018 would institute lost and stolen reporting requirements, universal background checks, gun lock requirements, and Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOS) in Pennsylvania. You can read more about these bills here.
While it was very exciting to meet with our legislators as these critical bills came to the House and Senate floors, we did encounter mixed responses, as we might expect in a state as diverse as ours. While it is immensely gratifying to engage with legislators whose goals align with ours, it is a little (or a lot) more challenging to try to find common ground with a legislator who does not share our point of view. Approaching these legislators head on with evidence-based arguments and
On the other hand, by sharing evidence with legislators and conveying our passion to protect and support all Pennsylvania children, pediatricians can have an influence on policymakers’ decision-making, and I am confident that we were able to achieve this at Advocacy Day this year!
As pediatricians, we work to support the health, safety, and wellbeing of children every day in our practice settings, but we can only do so much to protect children’s health inside our offices. Pennsylvania’s juvenile “in-justice” and gun violence crises are not something that can be solved by writing a prescription. We hope that you will join us in advocating for this critical children’s health legislation by contacting your legislators and encouraging them to vote YES on these bills. If you are a PA AAP member, you can visit our Advocacy Action Center to submit an advocacy letter to your State Senator and Representative on one or both of these issues. As always, thank you for joining us in our efforts to make Pennsylvania a healthier and safer state for children.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann Rigas, MD, FAAP
President 2022-2024
President 2022-2024