The group of 22 members conducted multiple studies and published over 400 recommendations which influenced reform and were discussed in the news media including The New York Times.
Among the members of the Commission who later had long political careers in the United States Senate were Arlen Spector, District Attorney of Philadelphia, and Richard G. Lugar, Mayor of Indianapolis.
For example, they included standards for criminal justice information systems, recruitment of minorities, community policing, speedy trial processing and treatment and rehabilitation of offenders.
[11] The Commission presented the full text of each standard and recommendation with commentary in five separate volumes defined by subject matter entitled Criminal Justice System,[12] Police,[13] Courts,[14] Corrections,[15] and Community Crime Prevention.
[16] As noted in a commercially published edition of the Commission's work in 1975, certain specific standards and recommendations caught the attention of the news media such as a proposed ban on plea bargaining.
However, there is evidence that the Commission's work did have an impact on professional development and structural reform of the police, courts, prosecutorial and public defender agencies in certain states.