As part of the Mental Health/Juvenile Justice work, JLC staff has worked with the Mental Health/Juvenile Justice State Team to draft and promote an amendment to Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Act. The proposed legislation provides that incriminating statements or information made by or obtained from a youth during behavioral health screening, assessment/evaluation or treatment are inadmissible on the issue of guilt in a delinquency hearing or criminal trial. The legislation (SB 1269) has been proposed by Senator Greenleaf and was voted favorably out of the Senate in March of 2008.

The aftercare reform work has been focused on creating change within the counties as well as at the state policy level. To begin this work a Joint Policy Statement on Aftercare was drafted and signed off on by leadership of five key state agencies. Over the past several years JLC has worked to support the efforts of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission, the Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers, and others to bring the vision set forth in the Policy Statement to the sixty-seven counties, with a goal of implementing reforms by 2010. To date, over half of the counties in the state have signed on to participate in a strategic planning process and to work toward implementation of key components of the Policy Statement. At the policy level, JLC has been working with the Department of Public Welfare to ensure that the goals of the Joint Policy Statement are incorporated in state regulations.