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For Immediate Release
January 18, 2012
Contact:
Jennifer Wilson
(570) 675-3931
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Senate Passes Juvenile Justice Reform Measure, Again
Harrisburg – Today, the state Senate once again approved
legislation sponsored by Senator Lisa Baker (R-20) to require judges to state on
the record the reasons behind disposition orders. She offered the following
remarks regarding the political gameplaying that has surrounded this and two
other bills intended to reform the juvenile justice system and protect the
fundamental rights of kids entering the system in the wake of the "Kids for
Cash" scandal in Luzerne County:
Senate Bill 818 is familiar to us. The Senate passed it unanimously last
June. It is a simple bill of important purpose. It requires juvenile court
judges to put on the record their reasoning for the decisions they make in
respect to the placement of juveniles who come before them. It is one of
several measures designed to prevent the judicial corruption that infected the
juvenile justice system in Luzerne County. If sentences are being handed out
disproportionate to the offenses, this record will help reviewers in detecting
seeming imbalance or possible misconduct.
So why do we need to vote this measure again? Because this
bill was sent back to us, not on its merits, but in an attempt to leverage other
legislation.
Ask just about anyone in Luzerne County, and they will tell
you that reform legislation is needed and demanded. People rightfully expect
each branch of state government to put in place every reasonable remedy possible
to prevent a repetition.
The problem is, the thinking inside state government does
not always match community sentiment.
Some people down here seem convinced that judicial
rulemaking by itself is sufficient. Certainly, judicial rulemaking has an
important Constitutional role in our system. Yet, the unavoidable truth is
judicial rules did not discourage horrific judicial misdeeds over an extended
period of time, nor did judicial rules provide the sanctions that brought the
corrupt judges to justice.
Then there are legislators who only reluctantly move
juvenile justice reform bills if they can use them to gain passage of other
issues. They really should read the report and recommendations of the
Interbranch Commission to be reminded that this is serious stuff. Three years
after the corruption came into public light, political gameplaying with reform
is impossible to explain or justify. There are two other bills, including the
most consequential of all, for mandatory counsel, that the House should send to
the Governor, without the delay this bill encountered.
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