Department Of Justice / Bureau Of Justice Assistance Working With SJI On State Court Re-Engineering

SJI, through its Strategic Initiatives Grants (SIG) program, has been focusing on supporting state court re-engineering in response to the ongoing budget crisis. Recently, BJA has agreed to assist in these efforts, and provided $700,000 to SJI to increase the amount available for court re-engineering. This is in addition to the SIG funding SJI has already invested in FY 2010 for the program. The BJA funding will allow the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to provide technical assistance to additional states in FY 2010.

Of the amount provided, $200,000 is for a new $400,000 BJA/SJI Partner Grant to NCSC for court workforce training. This training will specifically focus on the future of the court workforce, and will address court governance issues and essential business components that will enable the state courts to successfully operate with limited resources. In addition, this training will result in a set of recommendations for maintaining essential court services in times of financial crisis, and how access to justice can be maintained within severe resource constraints.