The Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice studying  the Luzerne County scandal issued its Final Report today.  The report includes detailed recommendations to prevent such a scandal from occurring again.  
 
While much of the report focused on the juvenile justice system in particular, a significant portion pertained to judicial discipline, a topic on which PMC presented testimony to the Commission.  The recommendations were broken down into short and long term goals, the former able to be implemented without the need for a constitutional amendment.  These included a call for the Supreme Court to re-examine the current Code of Judicial Conduct and scrutinize the language in the code to decide if it should be clearer.  Longer term recommendations call for a blue ribbon panel to be formed to determine if amendments to the constitutional provisions governing judicial discipline are needed.
 
There is much work ahead, but as PMC Executive Director Lynn Marks explained in an Associated Press report: "Pennsylvania has been so shaken by this that I think there are enough constituencies who are going to push this forward and not let the report gather dust."