Latest News

Board Awards Grants For The 3rd Quarter

The SJI Board of Directors met on June 17, 2010, to award grants for the 3rd quarter of FY 2010. Fifteen (15) new grants were awarded, totaling $702,005. continue >

Senate Confirms New Board Members

On June 22, 2010, the Senate confirmed the President’s nominations for the SJI Board of Directors. By law, SJI is supervised by a Board of Directors consisting of 11 members appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. continue >

Status Of FY 2011 Appropriations

On June 30, 2010, the House Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Subcommittee on Appropriations marked up the CJS Bill for FY 2011. The mark included SJI’s full request of $6,273,000; an increase of $1,142,000 over the FY 2010 enacted budget. These funding levels will enable SJI to support more grants to the state courts, in addition to increasing our efforts to address national court issues, such as state court re-engineering in response to budget reductions. continue >

SJI Scholarship Program

The Scholarship Program is on a "first-come, first-served" basis, with a limited budget each fiscal year. For FY 2010, the amount available for scholarships was $175,000. As of June 28, 2010, SJI has awarded the full amount available; therefore, no scholarship funding is available for the remainder of the fiscal year. The next deadline for scholarship applications is November 1, 2010, for courses that begin after January 1, 2011. continue >

Board Appoints Next Executive Director

The Board has appointed Jonathan Mattiello, SJI Deputy Director, as the next Executive Director. During his time at SJI, he has worked to: develop the innovative Strategic Initiatives Grants program; increase awareness of the critical federal role SJI plays in supporting the state courts; and enhance SJI’s visibility with key stakeholders. He joined SJI in 2007, after previously serving at DOJ as a Program Analyst working on resource management issues, which included a detail to the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations. continue >

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. continue >