Through this initiative, NCSC has provided technical assistance to courts in the form of trainings, customized guides and checklists, summaries of the literature on specific topics, connections to pretrial experts, and other forms of assistance. These engagements have focused on topics like pretrial assessment for release planning, electronic monitoring, pretrial staff safety and wellness, court date notifications, establishing pretrial services programs, and performance monitoring.
NCSC also developed the Pretrial Justice Center for Courts (PJCC), an online resource for judicial leaders and practitioners to explore a variety of pretrial justice topics. The PJCC is dedicated to helping courts plan for and develop their pretrial systems with practical resources. In addition to being a repository of information on the latest research, the website contains examples of pretrial reform efforts initiated across the country, short briefs outlining key pretrial justice topics, and tools for jurisdictions looking to implement new, evidence-based pretrial policies. For example, users can download a pretrial justice planning guide and tool to estimate the costs of implementing pretrial services to prepare for policy and practice changes in their jurisdiction.
The PJCC was recently updated with new resources and to improve the user interface. A pretrial justice reform activities data visualization was added to allow users to quickly identify – by topic area, year, and state – examples of legislative changes initiated or enacted between 2018 and 2022. By March of this year, the website will be updated with additional resources, including the results of a 2022 – 2023 survey on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on pretrial policy implementation. Tell us what additional resources would be helpful to advance pretrial justice in your court.
Upcoming #Webinar! Landmark SCOTUS Decisions: The Impact of the 21-376 Haaland v. Brackeen SCOTUS decision on Native American Families Webinar
When? Thursday, February 22nd, 2024, at 3:00PM EST.
This NACM – National Association for Court Management presentation will provide a brief historical context of the Indian Child Welfare Act, the points considered in Haaland v. Brackeen, and a summary of the decision. Implications of the decision and actions going forward will be discussed. The presenter will then examine why ICWA was cited as the gold standard in child welfare in amici briefs and share a research-based rationale for why cultural connections are important for dependent American Indian and Alaska Native children, and indeed, for all children. The presenter will explore how courts can support cultural connections by raising key questions and monitoring active efforts under ICWA.
IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, and The Chicago Bar Foundation (CBF) are excited to partner on this critically urgent project. An important addition to the national access to justice landscape, the Above the Line Network (ATLN) has just launched to tackle the daunting challenges that middle-class Americans face when seeking legal help that doesn’t break the bank. While most organized access to justice efforts rightly focus on low-income and poor people who are especially vulnerable, we can never achieve our nation’s ideal of equal justice for all when middle-class people—who make up more than 50% of the nation’s population— and small businesses struggle to find quality, affordable legal services. They are “above the line” of income eligibility for the free legal aid reserved for the poorest Americans, but they also struggle to find quality and affordable legal services in the current legal market.
The project advances the CBF’s work in helping legal consumers in the middle class connect with affordable and accessible quality legal services—including through its legal incubator program, the Justice Entrepreneurs Project—and the work of IAALS in helping the legal profession evolve to put client and consumer needs first and enable people of all socioeconomic backgrounds to find the legal help they need.
With a specific focus on the legal needs of the vastly overlooked middle class, ATLN is a new, organized network of individuals and organizations across the country and in Canada that are committed to improving access for the middle-market—a collaborative and supportive community where ideas, resources, and best practices can be shared, further developed, and scaled to reach more people who need affordable legal services.
“With the majority of Americans being left behind, a more concerted national effort is needed to address this distinct access gap, and ATLN aims to do just that,” said Jessica Bednarz, IAALS Director of Legal Services and the Profession. “To do so, we don’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel. Most of the pieces are there, and what we’re doing is bringing them together, thoughtfully and carefully, and ensuring that it rolls in the right direction—faster, more effectively, and finally getting the middle class where they need to go.”
ATLN intends to pull the many pieces together as a full ecosystem of middle-class legal providers and models for serving these clients. While there are some promising programs and models tackling this problem around the United States, Canada, and beyond, there is not a coordinated effort among them. ATLN will change that, uniting these existing efforts together—from incubators, socially conscious private law firms, nonprofit law firms, legal aid programs, and other organizations—to help them grow, thrive, and replicate, and foster advocacy for the middle class in the larger access to justice circles.
Upcoming Webinar! Breaking Barriers: Inclusive Communication for People with Disabilities in Court.
When? Wednesday, January 31st, 2024, at 12:00PM EST.
Clear and accessible communication is fundamental to ensure that everyone can fully participate in the court process. People with disabilities are no exception and have a right to effective communication – meaning that whatever is written or spoken must be accessible.
Join National Center for State Courts for an insightful webinar about the diverse ways people with disabilities communicate and learn effective strategies for court personnel to better serve and reduce barriers for this population.
“COSCA chose this topic because more than 25 years of research by NCSC and others has shown us the value of diversity in juries, the long-term effects of some jury service, and the myriad of reasons why individuals actively avoid jury service,” said Sally Holewa, North Dakota state court administrator and chair of COSCA’s policy committee. “Addressing these issues is well within the reach of court systems. Too often, we treat juries like the nameless panels depicted by sketch artists.”
The paper examines the reasons for juror dissatisfaction and identifies solutions and strategies for courts to address them. Additionally, COSCA outlines steps courts can take to ensure that jurors are treated with respect and appreciation throughout the entire process, starting from the initial contact until the verdict is rendered and beyond.
“It is time for courts to recognize the inherent humanity of those individuals who collectively make up our juries to ensure that the courts are welcoming the service of all individuals while mitigating any harm jury service causes them,” Holewa added.
Ten recommendations and multiple strategies offered in the paper take into consideration a juror’s time, financial circumstances, and the continued stress that may result from performing jury services.
COSCA identifies four causes of juror stress:
Uncertainty, lack of control and long wait times
The cost of jury service
Privacy concerns and fears about personal and family safety
Post-trial anxiety, guilt and vicarious trauma
COSCA encourages courts to think critically about how to improve the juror experience and offers the following recommendations:
Ensure that the number of jurors asked to report is based on actual need.
Shorten the length of jury service.
Advocate for adequate payment for jury service.
Educate trial court judges on vicarious trauma in jurors.
Chatbots can be an effective tool for improving access to services and efficiency in court operations. In NCSC’s new guide, Court Chatbots: How to Build a Great Chatbot for Your Court’s Website, our team explains how this computer software works and explores ways courts can use them to expand access.
“We know chatbots can provide great benefits to both the public and the court. However, we want to encourage courts to plan well and adequately support chatbots to ensure they are effective,” said NCSC Court Management Consultant Aubrie Souza, lead author of the new guide.
Today, you can find chatbots helping court users in Arizona, Los Angeles, and Miami answer frequently asked questions and provide information about navigating the court website and finding resources. Users interact with the chatbots via a menu or free text. In some cases, chatbots communicate with users in multiple languages.
The guide breaks down chatbot basics and identifies key areas to address when considering a solution for your court. It also covers important topics such as distinguishing between providing legal advice and legal information (Tiny Chat 26) and addressing digital divide concerns (Tiny Chat 4). The guide emphasizes that while a chatbot can help lessen the workload caused by phone calls, emails, live chats, and in-person visitors, it should supplement, not replace, staff.
Recommendations for building a good chatbot include:
Secure a vendor contract that addresses responsibilities such as maintenance, updates, security, data ownership and troubleshooting.
Pay close attention to how the chatbot will appear on your website and the expectations it sets for users.
Make the chatbot accessible by using plain language and text, colors and cues that can be recognized by users with visual impairments, and screen readers.
Provide users with transcripts and instructions on how to contact the court or an external resource if needed.
Recruit real users to test the chatbot prior to launch.
January is #NationalHumanTraffickingPreventionMonth. An opportunity to educate your community about the crime and highlight support services for those who have experienced it. State Justice Institute addresses the impact of federal and state human trafficking laws on the state courts, and the challenges faced by state courts in dealing with cases involving trafficking victims and their families. These efforts are intended to empower state courts to identify victims, link them with vital services, and hold traffickers accountable.
What does being a Fellow mean to the court community? CCJ and COSCA described the importance of the Fellows program in a joint resolution. The resolution recognizes Fellows as important court leaders, the importance of Fellows projects in improving the administration of justice, and Fellows “as a symbol of professional expertise and individual commitment to excellence in service.”
Most states do not have specialized family court judges, let alone judges dedicated to delinquency cases. Even in states that do have a family court structure, juvenile justice often gets short shrift compared to child welfare in terms of court attention, resources, and improvement efforts. In addition, most states do not provide juvenile court judges with the training, decision-making tools, data, and support systems necessary to make decisions consistently aligned with research and best practice that is specific to juvenile cases.
Many communities across the country are experiencing increasing concern and divisiveness on responses to juvenile crime and related juvenile justice reforms. Juvenile court judges are increasingly required to determine how best to balance community safety, public sentiment, media scrutiny, and political pressure with a commitment to research-based approaches and data-driven decision-making on juvenile crimes and punishments. States and the field, now more than ever, need to ensure that juvenile court judges are supported in making these difficult decisions and provided the tools and support commensurate with their outsized authority and responsibilities.
The Juvenile Court Transformation Initiative advances the recommendations outlined in the report at both the state and national levels by: 1) providing intensive technical assistance for three states to strengthen juvenile court policy and practice, in alignment with research on what works to improve public and youth outcomes; and 2) creating an unprecedented juvenile justice court training institute to serve as a resource for judges who handle delinquency cases.
“Earlier this year in September, I was honored to be a part of the faculty for the first-of-its-kind judicial training institute on Juvenile Justice held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Funded through a partnership with the State Justice Institute, the institute was a four-day training event and was designed and implemented through a partnership of the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ).
“The importance of this juvenile justice training institute is due to the limited, if any, judicial education, or training received by the multitude of judges who decide the hundreds of thousands of cases involving children who are involved in the courts across the nation involving juvenile delinquency matters. There is a limited number of guidelines or recommended practices to help guide judicial decision making. Indeed, some judges do not have any mandatory judicial education and limited mentoring before deciding these types of matters that involve children and public safety. A well-educated judiciary is vital to the safety of our communities and in the best interest of our children involved in our juvenile and family courts across the nation.”
Judge Carr, NCJFCJ President
“The Courting Judicial Excellence Juvenile Training Institute addressed fundamental aspects of juvenile justice practice including adolescent brain development, the use of science and research and its application to juvenile court practice. Particularly its application to critical decision-making points including intake, diversion, adjudication, detention, waiver, case management and placement decisions. Further, the training provided juvenile justice judges with the information necessary to request and use forensic evaluations for children in juvenile court including the importance of screening and assessment and the role of Risk, Need and Responsivity at key decision points. The Institute addressed effective, and ineffective practices, that improve outcomes for children at risk and improve public safety. The Institute also included the importance of judicial leadership in using data to drive services, interventions, and outcomes as well as the need to promote racial equity. The success of the Juvenile Justice Institute confirmed the need to further develop the capacity of judges to support, divert and redirect youth to appropriate and fair justice options while maintaining public safety.”
Judge Carr, NCJFCJ President
“Support from CSG and NCJFCJ has brought a heightened focus to juvenile justice issues throughout Montana’s state court system. I’ve benefited from their knowledge, skill and expertise throughout the course of our project. Their work has sparked a number of pivotal conversations among judges, juvenile probation officers, court administrators, prosecutors and defense attorneys. I believe this project will benefit our state’s youth court system for many years to come.”
John W. Parker, District Court Judge
“I loved everything about the training. All of it was informative. If I had to choose a favorite part, it would probably be the adolescent brain development session, the impact of detention and GPS and the tour/discussion with the youth.”
Training Institute Participant
“I really enjoyed hearing from the other judges from around the US and the world regarding what has worked and what has not worked in their courtroom. I enjoyed learning how to have a new perspective in juvenile justice.”
Deadline Extended! Seeking Juvenile Courts for #DemonstrationSites Project
Applications are due by January 5th, 2024.
Are you interested in making data-driven decisions in your juvenile justice court? Are you in the midst of juvenile justice system reform and could use some technical assistance or strategic planning? Would you like your court to be more engaged with your community? Whether you are just starting a new court reform initiative or need assistance with your current initiatives, check out this unique opportunity to assist your court.
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges NCJFCJ, with funding from the State Justice Institute (SJI), is pleased to announce that we are seeking juvenile courts that are interested in participating in the Enhanced Juvenile Justice Guidelines Demonstration Sites Project. If your court is interested in becoming a demonstration site, please click on the link below to complete the application.
