{"id":979,"date":"2017-02-15T11:59:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T16:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/?p=979"},"modified":"2021-11-23T19:08:43","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T19:08:43","slug":"social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/","title":{"rendered":"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson"},"content":{"rendered":"

For\u00a0our “Social justice spotlight” series, we ask students who participate in Sheller Center clinics and programs to talk a bit about their experience. \u00a0This week, we hear from Wes Stevenson, a third-year law student.<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the past year, I’ve been working with the Sheller Center’s\u00a0Justice Lab Clinic<\/a>\u00a0to end the City of Philadelphia’s\u00a0practice of charging parents for their children’s incarceration costs<\/a>.\u00a0 During that time, every person I’ve talked to about the issue has expressed the same outrage and confusion I felt when I first learned this was happening.\u00a0 Yes, this really happens, and it happens all across the nation.<\/p>\n

This work is critical because the practice is fundamentally unjust, it hurts families during a critical time, and it has no real financial benefit for the City. And it has been going on for a long time.\u00a0 Our work has been about ending the practice so no more families face these support orders.\u00a0 But it has also been about holding the City accountable, for imposing these costs on working families for years, and ensuring that when the practice does end, it ends for good.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia City Council has scheduled\u00a0a hearing on the practice for\u00a0March 3, 2017, at 11:00 a.m., in the Council chamber at City Hall.<\/strong> \u00a0I am grateful for the opportunity to testify at that hearing, alongside affected parents and advocates, and I’m hopeful that by the time I graduate, these collections will have officially stopped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For\u00a0our “Social justice spotlight” series, we ask students who participate in Sheller Center clinics and programs to talk a bit about their experience. \u00a0This week, we hear from Wes Stevenson, a third-year law student. Over the past year, I’ve been working with the Sheller Center’s\u00a0Justice Lab Clinic\u00a0to end the City of Philadelphia’s\u00a0practice of charging parents … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10,12,17],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-children-and-families","tag-criminal-justice","tag-justice-lab-clinic"],"yoast_head":"\nSocial justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson - Elder Justice Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson - Elder Justice Consortium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For\u00a0our “Social justice spotlight” series, we ask students who participate in Sheller Center clinics and programs to talk a bit about their experience. \u00a0This week, we hear from Wes Stevenson, a third-year law student. Over the past year, I’ve been working with the Sheller Center’s\u00a0Justice Lab Clinic\u00a0to end the City of Philadelphia’s\u00a0practice of charging parents ... Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Elder Justice Consortium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-15T16:59:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-23T19:08:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Len Rieser\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Len Rieser\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Len Rieser\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#\/schema\/person\/17bd7a929c981f6f0a4d9ef938244213\"},\"headline\":\"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-15T16:59:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-23T19:08:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/\"},\"wordCount\":250,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"children and families\",\"criminal justice\",\"Justice Lab Clinic\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/\",\"name\":\"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson - Elder Justice Consortium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-15T16:59:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-23T19:08:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/\",\"name\":\"Elder Justice Consortium\",\"description\":\"Elder Justice Consortium\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Elder Justice Consortium\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/04\/Elder-Justice-Consortium-No-background.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/04\/Elder-Justice-Consortium-No-background.png\",\"width\":1256,\"height\":371,\"caption\":\"Elder Justice Consortium\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#\/schema\/person\/17bd7a929c981f6f0a4d9ef938244213\",\"name\":\"Len Rieser\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/750a476d3a60d819b5c3955f51efd036a26e43d1ffeff170b7d12aa6b0189221?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/750a476d3a60d819b5c3955f51efd036a26e43d1ffeff170b7d12aa6b0189221?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/750a476d3a60d819b5c3955f51efd036a26e43d1ffeff170b7d12aa6b0189221?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Len Rieser\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/author\/lrieser\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson - Elder Justice Consortium","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson - Elder Justice Consortium","og_description":"For\u00a0our “Social justice spotlight” series, we ask students who participate in Sheller Center clinics and programs to talk a bit about their experience. \u00a0This week, we hear from Wes Stevenson, a third-year law student. Over the past year, I’ve been working with the Sheller Center’s\u00a0Justice Lab Clinic\u00a0to end the City of Philadelphia’s\u00a0practice of charging parents ... Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/","og_site_name":"Elder Justice Consortium","article_published_time":"2017-02-15T16:59:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-11-23T19:08:43+00:00","author":"Len Rieser","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Len Rieser","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/"},"author":{"name":"Len Rieser","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#\/schema\/person\/17bd7a929c981f6f0a4d9ef938244213"},"headline":"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson","datePublished":"2017-02-15T16:59:49+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-23T19:08:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/"},"wordCount":250,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#organization"},"keywords":["children and families","criminal justice","Justice Lab Clinic"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/","name":"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson - Elder Justice Consortium","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-02-15T16:59:49+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-23T19:08:43+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2017\/02\/15\/social-justice-spotlight-wesley-stevenson\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Social justice spotlight: Wesley Stevenson"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#website","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/","name":"Elder Justice Consortium","description":"Elder Justice Consortium","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#organization","name":"Elder Justice Consortium","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/04\/Elder-Justice-Consortium-No-background.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/04\/Elder-Justice-Consortium-No-background.png","width":1256,"height":371,"caption":"Elder Justice Consortium"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/#\/schema\/person\/17bd7a929c981f6f0a4d9ef938244213","name":"Len Rieser","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/750a476d3a60d819b5c3955f51efd036a26e43d1ffeff170b7d12aa6b0189221?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/750a476d3a60d819b5c3955f51efd036a26e43d1ffeff170b7d12aa6b0189221?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/750a476d3a60d819b5c3955f51efd036a26e43d1ffeff170b7d12aa6b0189221?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Len Rieser"},"url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/author\/lrieser\/"}]}},"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2941,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions\/2941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}