National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals

The Nixon Administration created the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals ("Commission") on October 20, 1971 through the United States Department of Justice's grant making agency to state and local governments, the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.The late sixties and early seventies were years of intense national examination of criminal justice. President Lyndon Johnson created the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. That Commission produced in 1967 a widely publicized report of recommendations to improve the criminal justice system. The Nixon Administration viewed its 1971 Commission as an extension of and a step beyond the mostly general recommendations of the Johnson Administration's work. In 1971, the Commission's mandate was to create specific, verifiable goals and standards for state and local governments to reduce crime and improve criminal justice. The Administrator of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration ("LEAA'), Jerris Leonard, appointed the Republican governor of Delaware, Russell W. Peterson to serve as Chairman of the Commission and Los Angeles County Sheriff, Peter J. Pitchess, to serve as Vice Chairman. The Executive Director of the Commission's staff was Thomas J. Madden and its Deputy Director was Lawrence J. Leigh. Although LEAA selected the members of the Commission and its twelve specialized task forces, it did not direct the Commission's work or its product. The twenty-two Commission members included law enforcement, judicial, community and political leaders from various levels of state and local government. Membership included police chiefs, judges, prosecutors, corrections leaders and private attorneys. Among the members of the Commission who later had long political careers in the United States Senate were Arlen Spector, District Attorney of Philadelphia, Richard G. Lugar, Mayor of Indianapolis.

In 1973, the Commission finished its work and issued a summary volume, A National Strategy to Reduce Crime, which presented a broad picture of the Commission's work including its crime reduction goals and its most important standards and recommendations. The Commission also presented all its standards and recommendations in five separate volumes entitled Criminal Justice System,Police,Courts,Corrections, and Community Crime Prevention. Most of these tended to represent the best professional practices of the time and created little controversy. They included, for example, standards for statewide criminal justice information systems, recruitment of minorities, community policing, speedy trial processing and treatment and rehabilitation of offenders including juvenile offenders. The Commission also recognized the importance of community organizations and programs outside the formal criminal justice system by issuing standards and recommendations for areas as diverse as citizen volunteers, community drug abuse treatment and physical design of public spaces such as parks and buildings.

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