In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children were unconstitutional. Four years later, Montgomery v. Louisiana made that protection retroactive, opening the door for thousands of people sentenced as children in adult court to receive new hearings and, for many, a path home.

At the time of the Montgomery ruling, Pennsylvania had the largest number of people serving these extreme sentences in the country. Philadelphia alone had sentenced more children to life without parole than any other city in the world. In 2016, 521 people across Pennsylvania were incarcerated under these sentences, including 325 from Philadelphia.

Since then, 460 individuals—88% of those once told they would die in prison as children—have been resentenced across the Commonwealth. Philadelphia, once at the center of this crisis, is now a national leader in repair and transformation, showing what becomes possible when we choose justice and dignity.