criminal justice advisory Board (LC-CJAB) Working group

This page is dedicated to the Lebanon County PA Criminal Justice Advisory Board (LC-CJAB). It includes:

HISTORY & BACKGROUND. Links to background information on CJABs in the Commonwealth of PA, including their origins starting in the early 2000s;
LEBANON COUNTY CJAB. Links to web pages and key documents relating to the LC-CJAB; and
LEBANON COUNTY NAACP & CJAB. Summaries of our ongoing efforts to have our voice heard on the LC-CJAB.

1. HISTORY & BACKGROUND

Pennsylvania's Criminal Justice Advisory Boards were launched in most PA counties thanks to an initiative undertaken in the early 2000s by the PA Commission on Crime & Delinquency (PCCD). A brief history of PA's CJABs can be found on the PCCD website, at https://www.pccd.pa.gov/criminaljustice/advisory_boards/Pages/CJABS.aspx

The website includes links to a helpful 5-page PDF file titled, "County Criminal Justice Advisory Boards: Minimum Operating Standards" (Nov. 2015), and a dashboard with a wide array of data relating to crime and criminal justice from all of Pennsylvania's 67 counties.

Notably, the PCCD website offers the following on the "membership" of CJABs:

"Membership is diverse, and includes representatives of:

Courts
Corrections
Law enforcement
Community-based organizations
Executive branch of government
Health and human services agencies
Victims’ services agencies
Business
Faith communities"

These are merely recommendations, however. Each county's CJAB operates independently, and they vary widely across the Commonwealth, as seen on the PCCD's "digital dashboard" for CJABS, at https://pacjabdash.net/ and, digging deeper, here: https://pacjabdash.net/Dashboards

As noted on the digital dashboard homepage, "The dashboards track key metrics from the county justice system, including: prison indicators, courts indicators, juvenile indicators, probation/parole indicators, [and] law enforcement indicators."

2. the Lebanon County Criminal justice advisory board (LC-CJAB)

The Lebanon County Criminal Justice Advisory Board, launched in 2009, meets at 9:00 a.m. on the second Monday of every other month, at the Mental Health / Intellectual Disability / Early Intervention Office (MH/ID/EI), 220 East Lehman St., Lebanon. See the "Meetings / Minutes" webpage of the LC-CJAB, at https://lebanoncountypa.gov/departments/criminal-justice-advisory-board/meetings-minutes As this webpage says, "Meetings are approximately one hour in length and are open to members of the criminal justice community, invited speakers, and accepted guests."

Notably, the members of the Lebanon County CJAB do not include representatives of any "community-based organizations" (such as our local branch of the NAACP) or "faith communities" as the PCCD recommends (see above).

The LC-CJAB website includes:

Meeting Minutes dating back to 2014: https://lebanoncountypa.gov/departments/criminal-justice-advisory-board/meetings-minutes

Current Membership List: https://lebanoncountypa.gov/departments/criminal-justice-advisory-board/members

Strategic Plan for 2022-2023: https://lebanoncountypa.gov/getmedia/5aa07bc2-bdb7-4afc-bc61-db18c3240a6e/Strategic-Plan-docx.pdf

As can be seen in recent meeting minutes, the LC-CJAB has five standing committees:

D.U.I Court
Prison Reduction
Mental Health / Team M.I.S.A. (Mental Illness & Substance Abuse)
Veterans Court
Drug Court

Also as gleaned from recent meeting minutes, the LC-CJAB also has at least three "Departments, Reports, and Issues of Interest":

Day Reporting Center
Heroin Task Force
Offender Reentry Coalition

3. THE Lebanon County NAACP and the LC-CJAB

The Lebanon County Branch of the NAACP first reached out to the LC-CJAB in December 2020, asking to attend their next meeting on February 9, 2021. The LC-CJAB declined to issue an invitation to that meeting. The same was true of our request to attend their next meeting on April 13. Upon further request, we received an invitation for one of our members to attend the June 8 meeting. Executive Committee member Lori Burrus did so, introducing our fledgling Branch to the Lebanon County CJAB and inaugurating what we hope is a fruitful relationship moving forward.

Either Lori Burrus or Michael Schroeder (or both) attended as "guests" the next eight CJAB meetings (October and December 2021 and all six meetings of 2022). "Guests" are seated in chairs lined up against the walls of the 2nd-floor conference room. "Core members" are seated at the conference table.

In a letter dated January 18, 2023, our Branch respectfully asked the LC-CJAB that we be granted “core” member status and have a seat at the table. In response, at its meeting of April 10, 2023, "On a motion by President Judge Tylwalk, seconded by Commissioner Phillips, the members authorized [CJAB Planner] Mr. Shott to prepare amendments to the Bylaws adding the N.A.A.C.P. . . . to the core membership" (quote from the April 10 meeting minutes).

This revision to the Bylaws adding our Branch as a core member was to have been voted on at its next meeting on June 12, 2023. It was on the agenda for that meeting, but was not voted on for lack of a quorum.

At the next CJAB meeting on August 14, the District Attorney's Office raised objections to making our Branch a voting core voting member. What if the "Sons of the Aryan Nation," for example, sought core membership status? What if several dozen other community organizations were to request core membership? Where will it end? Consensus was reached to table (postpone) the motion to make our Branch a core voting member, pending further discussion. It was suggested that a new revision to the Bylaws be made that would create a new category, "non-voting member." That is where things stand at the current writing. The next meetings are scheduled for October 9 and December 11, 2023.

Regardless, our Branch looks forward to working with all the members of the LC-CJAB in pursuit of our shared goal of ensuring that the constitutional and civil rights of all the citizens and residents of Lebanon County are protected and respected in our criminal justice system.