Greenleaf Commends Task Force Members for National Award

HARRISBURG – Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf, chairman of the Joint State Government Commission Task Force on Geriatric and Seriously Ill Inmates, said that members of the task force, its advisory committee, and the staff of the Joint State Government Commission deserve congratulations for contributing to a report that was selected for a national award by the Legislative Research Librarians section of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Titled "Report of the Advisory Committee on Geriatric and Seriously Ill Inmates," the document deals with the costs and special problems of incarceration of elderly and sick prisoners and with alternatives to the current system.  The legislative task force  and its advisory committee were created as the result of a resolution sponsored by Sen. Greenleaf.

The NCSL chooses 10 documents each year as "Notable Documents" from among the thousands of reports generated by state legislatures.  The selected documents are kept as a resource for NCSL and made available to other states.

Greenleaf said he is pleased to be associated with the report, but that the real credit belongs to the members of the advisory committee who researched the issue and applied their expertise to creating the report.  The advisory committee members include Mansfield University Associate Professor Scott Thornsley, chairman; Mary Achilles, former state victim advocate; Roberta Altenor, special assistant, PA Department of Public Welfare; District Judge John F. Anthony; Judge Michael J. Barrasse; Mark H. Bergstrom, executive director, PA Commission on Sentencing; Professor Alfred Blumstein, Heinz School, Carnegie Mellon University; Kathy Buckley, director, Office of the Victim Advocate, PA Department of Corrections; Michelle L. Connors, division director, PA Department of Health; Lance Couturier, director of mental health services, PA Department of Corrections; University of Scranton Associate Professor Harry R. Dammer; Tom D'Annunzio, PA Commission on Crime and Delinquency; Robert H. Davis, associate medical director, Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, PA Department of Public Welfare; William DiMascio, executive director, PA Prison Society; Gordian V. Ehrlacher, public health administrator, Bucks County Health Department; Erie County District Attorney Bradley Foulk, representing the PA District Attorneys Association; Larry Frankel, legislative director, ACLU of PA; Victoria S. Freimuth, chief counsel, PA Board of Probation and Parole; Drexel University Professor Julia Glover Hall; Bishop Dorothea S. Hall, founder, Living Life Ministries, Inc.; Secretary John L. Heaton, Board of Pardons; Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes; Deputy Superintendent Mardiann Hunsberger, SCI Laurel Highlands; William J. Johnston-Walsh, deputy secretary, PA Department of Aging; Messiah College Dean Joseph Jones; James Jordan, executive director; National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of PA; Judge Scott E. Lash; Angus R. Love, executive director, PA Institutional Law Project; Penn State Harrisburg Associate Professor Cynthia Massie Mara; Father Joseph R. McCaffrey, pastor, Sts. John & Paul Church, and chaplain, FBI; Catherine McVey, former deputy secretary, PA Department of Corrections and currently chair, PA Board of Probation and Parole; Barry M. Miller, Esq.; Lawrence F. Murray, board secretary, PA Board of Probation and Parole; Allen Panfil, Esq.; Percy Poindexter, vice president, Western Region, PA State Corrections Officers Association; former State Attorney General Ernest D. Preate, Jr., Lobbyist Coalition, Inc.; Mary Ellen Rehrman, director of policy, Family Training and Advocacy Center for Serious Mental Illness; Roger C. Reis, former county commissioner; Superintendent Frederic A. Rosemeyer, SCI Laurel Highlands; John S. Shaffer, executive deputy secretary, PA Department of Corrections; former Lt. Gov./Acting Governor Mark S. Singel; Victoria Sostack, director, Office of the Victim Advocate, PA Board of Probation and Parole; Roger L. Thomas, director, A United Methodist Witness; Raymond Thompson, president, Operation Outward Reach, Inc.; John Tuttle, director, Office of Probation and Parole Services, PA Board of Probation and Parole; Nelson R. Zolliger, staff assistant, PA Department of Corrections.