The arc of redemption is alive and well – and growing – in Lebanon County’s court system.
Programs changing the way offenders are prosecuted in Lebanon County court have been implemented in recent years and more are on the way, according to Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf.
These changes are part of a concerted effort to offer non-violent offenders diversionary programs that, with compliance, will keep those individuals out of prison. LebTown recently interviewed Hess Graf and First Assistant DA Brian Diederick about several existing programs and new ones her office is working to implement.
“We don’t wake up wanting to put people in prison,” Hess Graf said.
She’s quick to add two caveats to that statement: Violent offenders must be incarcerated to protect society, and individuals charged with any crime must be held accountable for their actions.
“If you do something, it is a criminal act. It’s an intentional act, and good people will do criminal acts,” said Hess Graf. “So you have to believe in the arc of redemption. And if somebody wants to make himself or herself better and not come back here, if they want to be a productive member of society and add to this community, you need to give them the opportunity to do that.”
That’s why diversionary programs like DUI, Drug, SAMP (small amount of marijuana program), and Veterans courts have been implemented in recent years. The creation of some programs have come with input from and the blessing of Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas President Judge John C. Tylwalk, according to Hess Graf.
For those who land in these courts, ongoing progress includes meetings with Tylwalk as a condition of program entry, according to the Lebanon County Intermediate Punishment Treatment 2024-25 program guidelines published on the county’s website.
“We have Drug Court for a variety of drugs not just marijuana. DUI Court that is for second and potentially subsequent DUI offenses. ARD for first-time offenders, non-felonies. Veteran’s Court, which can encompass a variety of offenses but the offender must be a vet, and the Small Amount of Marijuana Program. Mental Health Court is on the horizon,” said Hess Graf.
Mental Health Court
Diederick said the county is in the process of developing a Mental Health Court program, with conversations occurring about how that should be administered and what the court’s expectations are for it. Hess Graf said it’s hoped that court will launch in 2026.
There’s a need for that particular court.
LebTown reported in June 2024 that 69 percent of inmates at the Lebanon County Correctional Facility have mental health needs, an increase of 9 percent from the previous year. Those statistics were reported by LCCF Warden Tina Litz to county commissioners. In many cases, those same inmates have a mental health need coupled with drug and/or alcohol addiction, according to Litz.
SAMP Court
SAMP Court was created during Hess Graf’s tenure as district attorney, which began on Jan. 31, 2020, following her predecessor, Dave Arnold’s, election to the Pennsylvania Senate. Hess Graf was elected to a four-year term in 2021 and is up for re-election this year. She was hired by Arnold in the district attorney’s office in 2009.
Founded during the COVID-19 pandemic for non-violent offenders arrested in possession of a small amount of marijuana and/or drug paraphernalia, this court was created, in part, as a way to bypass ARD.
ARD requires a costly alcohol/drug evaluation, which Hess Graf said individuals who were jobless during the pandemic couldn’t afford to pay. Non-compliance caused by the inability to pay for the evaluation landed offenders back in court, which added to the pain they felt in their wallets.
“There was an expectation that someone who may have had $15 to $50 worth of drugs on them had to now go out and somehow secure thousands of dollars to get a drug and alcohol evaluation solely to complete ARD so that they didn’t end up with a criminal misdemeanor on their record,” said Hess Graf.
There were other logistical reasons for creating SAMP Court, Hess Graf added.
“It was, at times, I would say 10 to 20 percent of our caseload. It was bogging down the probation system because every person that goes through ARD has to be supervised. And if they are not doing their drug and alcohol (evaluations), they’re in violation and have to be brought back to court.”
Hess Graf noted there was a “huge crushing cost” associated with the fines and court fees imposed on people going back to court for not complying with their ARD terms who had been arrested with a small amount of pot.
“This was involving people who, nine times out of 10, were smoking pot who by the time they came to court, had got their medical (marijuana) card,” she added. “So we took a step back, talked to probation to find out how we could do this better, and that is how we came up with this program.”
DUI Court founded in 2009
Lebanon County’s DUI Court is an alternative to incarceration as a result of repeat DUI offenses since ARD is only offered to first-time offenders.
That court, founded in the late 2000s by Arnold, focuses on “treating the underlying drug and/or alcohol dependency possessed by the offender.” The goal is to treat the addiction and help the offender develop self-awareness and accountability.
Veterans Court benefits vets
Hess Graf said Veterans Court, launched in 2019, is another alternative to incarceration that’s available to military veterans only. Potential applicants can apply with any criminal charge; the only requirement is prior military service.
That court requires an offender to utilize a military mentor and undergo treatment for substance abuses, anger management, mental health and/or any other underlying concern. It potentially allows for a dismissal of criminal charges if the offender completes all requirements.
“The Veterans Court has had a great and long relationship with the VA Hospital and use of the services that are available to the veterans at the VA,” said Tylwalk. “The Veterans Court program really formalized that where there was a real collaboration between us and the VA in terms of diverting veterans away from the normal criminal justice programs and having a special program with mentors in place to really guide them (veterans) through the process.”
Drug Court fills a void
Tylwalk said the Drug Court was founded out of a need to fill the void created when the Renaissance Crossroads program ended in 2021.
Read More: Renaissance Crossroads falls victim to staffing shortages
“We felt that was a great program although there was a lessening need for that and our Drug Court grew out of a need following the closing down of that program,” Tylwalk said. “Both the Veterans Court and Drug Court programs have started since I have been president judge.”
Cooperation is the key
Hess Graf said these programs work because they have buy-in and cooperation from all branches of the court system, including the DA’s office, parole services and other departments with ties to the county’s court system or county services-based departments.
“When we look at the diversionary programs, that’s why there are so many layers of checks and balances within the system,” she said. “So we look at someone’s potential, like what their outcomes could be. We get this sheet that says, ‘Okay, based on their prior record, based on the current offense, this is the potential range of what the consequence is.’”
Hess Graf said that could mean probation, county or state prison, house arrest or a diversionary program. She added that first-time offenders are often offered the Alternative Rehabilitative Disposition program, also known as ARD.
“That allows them to go through a typical probation/parole supervision if they complete everything they need to do, they can file and they can have the charge typically expunged,” she said.
The next level of punishment for non-violent offenders may be a diversionary court program.
“Those are for people that need more than ARD,” Hess Graf explained. “So 99 percent of the time, those convictions stay on their record, but they go through the programs, they do the treatment components successfully, and they avoid jail as their reward, I would say.”
Diversionary court programs exist here and elsewhere for a distinct purpose.
“The goal is, you want to lessen the likelihood of recidivism at the end of it. You don’t want them to come back. And that’s why we give them the opportunity,” said Hess Graf. “If they mess up in those programs, typically the outcome is state prison. So it’s this huge carrot on the stick of, if you really want to be better, if you want to follow your redemption arc, we’re going to give you the path to get there. But it’s really dependent on how sincere that intent is.”
Mentoring programs work, too
Another recently enacted initiative that currently is not an official county program involves offender mentoring. Leroya Ryan of Leroya Ryan LLC is a Lebanon County resident who works with the DA’s office to seek non-prison solutions for non-violent offenders.
“We are trying to use her program as, I wouldn’t call it diversionary per se, but if you are a criminal and this is kind of your first foray into the criminal system, I think you have a choice of, do you want to turn your life around and do you want to be a productive member of society going forward or do you not? Do you want to keep reoffending and do life on the installment plan?” said Hess Graf. “Leroya will tell you she’s been through the system and she hit that point in her life and that’s how she got to where she is now.”
To say Hess Graf is a big fan of Leroy’s mentoring program would be an understatement.
“So I am a huge proponent of her program. We’re using it as a bail condition. We are using it as a sentencing condition, a condition of parole,” she said. “We have no control over how her program runs. She does individual and group meetings. She apprises us, obviously, if somebody’s complying, because if they’re not complying with the program, that’s a problem. But we have no control over how she mentors, how she guides people, nothing. I trust her enough to say, ‘You are a condition of sentence and at times a diversionary tactic from jail.’”
Key staff hirings
Another purposeful endeavor to remake the DA’s office was to hire Diederick from the Lebanon County Public Defender’s office. Diederick said his motivation to move from one side of the courtroom to the other was to continue his ongoing commitment to the Lebanon County community. (Another hire by Hess Graf from the public defender’s office was Kevin M. Dugan as senior deputy district attorney.)
“The reality is that certain things that people do require punishment. They require the standards of the community to be imposed upon them to say, ‘You don’t do that, and you don’t get away with doing that.’ And there’s a price to be paid,” said Diederick. “I talked to my wife, I talked to my family, and it was, ‘I can do a lot of good in this role.’”
Part of that commitment was to bring his expertise from the defendant’s side of the courtroom to the DA’s office.
“Somebody’s name comes up for Drug Court, they may not easily be recognized as someone who has had a long-term addiction. But the fact that I’ve, for God’s sake, been around too damn long, I recognize names,” said Diederick. “Oh, that person has struggled with drugs for as long as they’ve been in the system. Even though the crimes aren’t necessarily waving a red flag saying, ‘Drugs, drugs, drugs!’ Well, you know what? Let’s get them into Drug Court because they don’t necessarily need to go to state prison for this, but they need to get their (expletive) clean and get something fixed.”
Hess Graf said both men’s expertise with defendants is being utilized in the DA’s office for diversionary programs.
“Brian has been a lovely teammate in terms of treatment and diversionary programs,” said Hess Graf. “And I think one of the things that we really added with his experience and one of our senior deputies, Kevin Dugan, that was Brian’s first assistant upstairs, is they came into this role with, yes, we are now wearing the white hat and we’re going to be prosecutors. However, they have this background in what it’s like to represent criminal defendants and that sometimes jail is not the answer for everyone.”
Do diversionary programs work?
Tylwalk said he believes the various diversionary court programs have been a success. Although he didn’t have statistics readily available, he does see these individuals on a monthly basis for their court-mandated meetings with him.
“I think that without having the statistics available to me that I can wholeheartedly say that they’ve been successful programs,” he said. “The DUI program, since its infancy, proves to be a real success for those types of cases, and we’ve seen the same type of success in our Drug Court and our Veterans Court. I think overall the success rate is better for those who have gone through those programs than those who have not gone through those programs.”
What’s next?
Concerning the future of any new diversionary programs, Tylwalk said the primary focus in Lebanon County is on a Mental Health Court. He noted conversations have been ongoing for several years, including addressing logistical issues such as where these individuals would be housed while in the program.
“It’s something that’s really been on the front burner the last couple years of the annual Behavioral Health Summit, a statewide summit in Harrisburg, and it is one of the top priorities we discuss in our group,” said Tylwalk. “It’s really something that we hope we can move forward to. We’ve had great cooperation in the past with MH/ID/EI (mental health/intellectual disabilities/early intervention) and they are fully vested, I believe, in pursuing it. So we’re continuing to look at it and hopefully we’ll develop a program such as Mental Health Court.”
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