Legal News

City Council Authorizes Criminal Justice Hearings

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

The Philadelphia City Council is the latest governmental entity to take its own look at Philadelphia's criminal justice system, which has come under scrutiny for problems such as witness intimidation.

A resolution was adopted this week for the Joint Committees on Law and Government and Public Safety to "hold hearings to investigate how the various agencies that comprise the criminal justice system in Philadelphia can better operate, collaborate, and cooperate in an effort to increase efficiencies and reduce costs in order to lessen the burden on city taxpayers."

In the  past several months, there have been U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee field hearings convened by outgoing U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and legislative hearings by the state Senate Judiciary Committee on the state of the city's criminal courts. A task force led by state Supreme Court Justice Seamus P. McCaffery also is scrutinizing criminal courts.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on September 24, 2010 (boomark / email).