Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has brought in a former leading U.S. Department of Justice official to oversee juvenile criminal justice issues for the office.

Robert L. Listenbee, who spent four years as the administrator of the DOJ's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, has joined the office as “second” first assistant, Krasner announced Wednesday.

According to Krasner, Listenbee will focus on juvenile justice issues, while the office's other first assistant, Carolyn Engel Temin, will continue focusing on adult criminal justice issues, with a particular emphasis on homicide.

“There have been two locomotives pulling this train, and that has been Carolyn Temin and myself. It is so important that we not waste time and that we are able to push as quickly, effectively and carefully in all directions that there are now three locomotives pulling this train,” Krasner said. “You have three locomotives pulling the train. It's going to pull more weight, it's going to go faster and we're going to be able to make more progress in all different areas, institutionally in terms of raising funds in terms of the national agenda in terms of things like restorative justice that are little understood and should have been on the radar of this institution from a long time ago.”

Listenbee headed the OJJDP from 2013 until 2017, but before joining the DOJ, he worked at the Philadelphia Defender's Association for 27 years, eventually becoming the chief of the office's Juvenile Unit. During his time at the Defender's Association, he was also a member of the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice that was convened to investigate Pennsylvania's juvenile justice system in the wake of the “kids-for-cash” scandal.

Krasner touted Listenbee's work removing juveniles from the adult system, and expanding fatherhood programs and drug treatment courts, and said Listenbee also brings with him contacts and institutional knowledge of nonprofits and federal agencies that should greatly benefit the DA's Office. Krasner also noted that, while at the DOJ, Listenbee managed a budget more than four times the size of his office's budget.

Listenbee characterized joining the District Attorney's Office as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” He said he wanted to help further Krasner's stated mission of criminal justice reform, and noted some recent steps the office has taken toward that goal, including the recent announcement that prosecutors would not seek cash bail for numerous nonviolent offenses.

One of the issues Listenbee said he plans to focus on is reducing the number of instances where charges against juveniles are filed directly into the adult system, which can lead to more youths sitting in jail because they are unable to afford bail.

“My basic view is that young people need to be in the juvenile system whenever possible,” he said. “To the extent that juveniles can be returned to the juvenile system, that must be done.”

Listenbee got his undergrad degree from Harvard and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 1978.

Listenbee said that petitions in Pennsylvania seeking to have juvenile cases removed from adult criminal court have dropped from 10,000 in 2001 to about 2,000 in 2017. However, he said there is still room for improvement, particularly when it comes to handling mental health and addiction issues, and the education and job training programs, which he said are lacking. Although no prosecutor's office is equipped to improve those issues alone, he said, he plans to work with agencies throughout the city to expand those programs.

“We will be urging the professionals who deal with those issues to step up and work with us collaboratively,” he said.