Training Development

We are a relatively new division and have not organized a conference previously and are seeking utilize the training expertise from BJA to help identify and provide quality trainers and presenters for our conference.

As the Luzerne County "kids for cash" scandal demonstrated, Pennsylvania's county funded indigent defense delivery system is failing to meet the needs of their communites and the requirements of 21st century effective legal assistance of counsel. Pennsylvania remains the ONLY STATE that provides NO general fund appropriations to support U.S. Supreme Court mandated legal representation services for adults and children facing loss of liberty.

Local planning efforts have identified the problem of low levels of treatment success among criminal justice population, due in part to a lack of evidence-based programming among treatment providers, as well as the absence of a validated system for treatment matching. The resulting high rates of recidivism are a public safety hazard as well as a considerable burden on the limited resources of the local criminal justice system.

The City of Stockton is implementing the Operation Ceasefire strategy to reduce homicides and shootings. Operation Ceasefire is a violence reduction prevention/intervention strategy that is part of the comprehensive violence reduction strategies of several cities including Chicago, Cincinnati, Newark, NJ, New Orleans, High Point, NC, Detroit and several California cities-Modesto, Salinas, Oakland, and Sacramento.