Hear here (Part 1)!
Hear here (Part 2)!
Behind the Scenes of Criminal Justice:
A Dauphin County Success
On Wednesday, January 8, 2020, the Hershey Indivisible Team is honored to host Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo and Dauphin County Public Defender Mary Klatt as they present: “Behind the Scenes of Criminal Justice: A Dauphin County Success” at the Hershey Chocolate Workers’ Hall at 15 W. Caracas Ave., Hershey after a short business meeting that begins at 6:30 pm.
Our speakers will share information that is normally unseen by the general public as our tax dollars work to rehabilitate and help those who need our support. While efforts to achieve justice previously were reported in the newspapers, now most hearings happen in empty courtrooms with little coverage. Most citizens would be surprised to hear that in Dauphin County only about 100 of the 7,000 court cases actually go to trial each year.
Come and learn how a variety of community stakeholders regularly gather with the Criminal Justice Advisory Board to constantly improve justice in the system. While the Dauphin County Prison is a facility housing approximately 1000 adults at any given time, it holds both temporary, pre-trial detainees and sentenced offenders. The demands of providing opportunities and services for such a wide range of needs includes:
- Counseling and programming within the facility that allows offenders to deal with the addictions and behaviors which brought them to prison, and to refrain from returning to the same life style upon release, thereby helping them break the cycle of re-incarceration, and lightening the tax burden on the public.
- Life skills and educational classes for the inmates to help them prepare to deal with the needs and stress of everyday life, and to seek gainful employment upon release, thus becoming tax-paying citizens and productive members of society.
- Inmate work crews that provide services to the community by assisting county agencies or municipalities with various projects, cleaning up litter, growing produce for donation to soup kitchens to help feed the hungry, and after heavy snowfalls, clearing snow from the township’s fire hydrants and shoveling snow for aged or disabled individuals.