The Commission’s enabling legislation calls for the establishment of a research and development program (42 Pa.C.S. §2153(a)(7)) that: serves as a clearinghouse and information center for the collection, preparation and dissemination of information on sentencing, resentencing, and parole practices; and assists and serves in a consulting capacity to the judiciary, legislative, and executive branches of government to promote sound, effective, and rational sentencing and parole practices.  The Commission is also required to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-benefit of various criminal justice interventions and programming.

Short Sentence Parole

• Report to the General Assembly (2023)

State Intermediate Punishment

• Part 1:  Report to the Legislature (2020)
• Part 2:  Report to the Legislature (2020)

Recidivism Risk Reduction Incentive Program

• Report to the Legislature (2019)

State Motivational Boot Camp

• What Have We Learned Over the Past 17 Years (2011)

Other Commission Reports and Publications

• An Extension to the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing’s Evaluation of the Short Sentence Parole Program (2024)
• Change Management in an Indeterminate Sentencing System (FSR Vol. 35 No. 3 – February 2023)
• A Comprehensive Study of Violations of Pennsylvania’s Uniform Firearms Act (2022)
• The Role of Substance Abuse in Probation Outcomes (2020)
• Sentencing Interrupted (2020)
• The Use and Impact of Mandatory Minimum Sentences (2009)
• Previous Commission Reports

• Catalog of Research Citing the Commission