News

Final Session of Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice Report and Recommendations to be Issued

May 24, 2010

HARRISBURG, May 24, 2010—The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice will meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 27, at the Pennsylvania Judicial Center, 601 Commonwealth Avenue, Harrisburg, to adopt and issue its Final Report and Recommendations. A news conference will follow at approximately 11 a.m. Your coverage is invited. The 11-member commission, chaired by Superior Court Senior Judge John M. Cleland, was created by statute in August 2009 to conduct a noncriminal investigation into failures in the juvenile justice system in Luzerne County which came to light in a judicial scandal. The commission's mandate was to determine the causes of the failures, to restore public confidence in the administration of justice and to make recommendations to prevent a recurrence in Luzerne County or elsewhere in the Commonwealth. The commission was given a deadline of May 31, 2010, to complete its work and to file a final report with recommendations to the Governor, the General Assembly and the Supreme Court. TV and radio stations can pick up live feeds of Thursday's meeting transmitted to an audio/video mult box from pool cameras provided by PCN. Still photography at the meeting is permitted without the use of a flash. The meeting will be held in the Judicial Council Room on the first floor of the Pennsylvania Judicial Center. The news conference will be held in the lobby atrium of the Judicial Center. Copies of the commission's report will be available at that time. Transcripts of the public hearings of the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice and other information about the commission are available on the Web site of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System at: http://www.pacourts.us/Links/Public/InterbranchCommissionJuvenileJustice.htm