News

Juvenile Justice Panel Sets New Round of Hearings

January 18, 2010

HARRISBURG, January 19, 2010 - The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice which is investigating failures in the juvenile justice system in Luzerne County will hold hearings on Thursday and Friday, January 21 and 22, at the Pennsylvania Judicial Center near the State Capitol. The hearings will begin at 9 a.m. both days and will be held in the Council Room on the first floor of the Judicial Center, 601 Commonwealth Avenue, Harrisburg. Witnesses are scheduled to include James E. Anderson, executive director of the Juvenile Court Judges' Commission; Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center; Richard J. Gold, deputy secretary of the state Department of Public Welfare in charge of the Office of Children, Youth and Families, and Dr. Gerald Zahorchak, State Secretary of Education. Other witnesses are to include county juvenile probation chiefs and experts on juvenile justice, delinquency prevention and children's mental health. A complete agenda for the hearings is attached below. The agenda also will be posted on the Web site of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. (See link at the bottom of this release.) TV and radio stations can pick up a live feed of the hearings transmitted to an audio/video mult box from pool cameras provided by PCN. Still photography of the hearings is permitted without the use of a flash. The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice is conducting a noncriminal vestigation into the circumstances that led to failures in the juvenile justice es of and in ilkes-Barre on November 9 and 10 and on December 7 and 8. n, will be vailable to the media to answer questions during breaks and at the conclusion of mission's proceedings and other information about the ommission are available at: /Public/InterbranchCommissionJuvenileJustice.htm in system in Luzerne County. The commission's purpose is to determine the caus the failures, to restore public confidence in the administration of justice and to make recommendations to prevent a recurrence of a similar situation. The commission previously held hearings in Harrisburg on October 14 W Superior Court Judge John M. Cleland, chairman of the commissio a this week's hearings. Transcripts of the com c http://www.pacourts.us/Links