The FY 2023 4th Quarter SJI Board meeting was held on September 18, 2023, at the Supreme Court of Kansas. The Board was joined by Stephanie Smith, State Court Administrator and Chief Justice Marla Luckert. Included below are images from the Kansas Judicial Center and the Kansas State Capital.
National Association for Court Management‘s 2023 CourtFutures Top Trends to Watch: By NACM Respondents which lists the top trends identified from the survey. The survey captured so many critical challenges that courts are facing now and into the next ten years.
This year was NACM’s 12th survey since 2012. It garnered nearly 300 responses, looked at several new scenarios, and both updated and tracked some scenarios from previous years. For more information, please click on the PDF attachment below.
Upcoming Webinar! The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) will be hosting: AI and the Impact on the Practice of Law on September 21st, 2023, at 3:00PM EST. The second webinar of The Promises and Perils of AI in the Courts Webinar Series. This second webinar will dive into important legal factors such as bias in AI, ethical and regulatory considerations, and the impact of AI on law firms. Register here.
Register today! Online Webinar Event on September 14th, 2023, at 1:00PM EST. Missed court appearances are leading causes of warrants and jail time in the U.S. Plus, they contribute to:
📊 Racial inequities in arrests
🕗 Pretrial process delays
💵 Huge court system costs
But this doesn’t have to be our reality. Sign up to get the latest research from experts—and their practical approaches to turning the tide.
Register here: Webinar Registration – Zoom
Register now! The Center for Justice Innovation (the Center) is pleased to announce an in-person Trauma-Informed Practice Strategy Lab for Criminal Courts (TIPS Lab) Symposium, funded by SJI, in Denver, Colorado on November 2-3, 2023, for practitioners, academics, and other stakeholders to share ideas, lessons learned, and discuss challenges to implementation of trauma-informed practices. This symposium will inform the development of a blueprint for implementation of practical strategies, which will include tools and a framework to assist courts in moving beyond training to sustained implementation.
The Symposium is scheduled for Thursday, November 2, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. to Friday, November 3, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. in Denver, Colorado at the Inverness Denver, a Hilton Golf & Spa Resort. This Symposium is funded by the State Justice Institute. This event is free to attend, and all attendee travel and hotel accommodations will be covered through federal grant funds. Participants must apply to attend and be approved by the Center before booking any travel or accommodations. Please click the link below to apply to attend the Symposium. In order to attend, each person interested in attending must click “apply to attend” below and complete the online form by 8:00 PM EST on September 15, 2023.
If you have questions regarding attendance, please contact Alejandra Garcia, Associate Director of National Technical Assistance at garciaa@innovatingjustice.org. Please note that by completing this form, you are applying to attend the Symposium and acceptance is not guaranteed. If you are approved to attend, you will be contacted by Center staff and provided further information about hotel and travel.
Register here: Trauma-Informed Practice Strategy Lab for Criminal Courts Symposium Tickets, Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 9:00 AM | Eventbrite
Rural communities face unique challenges that impact their ability to deliver fair and equitable justice. Despite these challenges, rural communities rely on their many strengths to address the needs of their residents. In 2021, the National Center for State Courts, in partnership with Rulo Strategies, launched the Rural Justice Collaborative (RJC) to showcase the strengths of rural communities and highlight the cross-sector collaboration that is a hallmark of rural justice systems. These strengths include strong professional networks, deep ties to the communities they serve, resiliency, and ingenuity. A cross-sector Advisory Council composed of rural judges and stakeholders in the justice, public safety, child welfare, public health, and behavioral health systems guide the work of the RJC. The current Advisory Council is composed of ten rural judges and nine rural justice stakeholders representing diverse disciplines.
The RJC Innovation Sites are the foundation of the RJC’s peer-to-peer training and technical assistance program designed to build rural justice systems’ capacity. RJC Innovation sites showcase work in rural communities that enhances rural justice systems and celebrates the people who make these efforts possible. Through a rolling nomination process, the RJC’s Advisory Council has selected 18 rural innovation sites to date. Rural communities can access the resources and information needed to replicate components of these initiatives through case studies, webinars, and podcasts hosted on RJC’s Online Resource Center.
The RJC Digest is also an important source for information about resources and training opportunities. Subscribe to the RJC Digest here. For more information, contact Michelle Cern (mcern@ncsc.org).
AI, data quality and security, and court staffing were among the hot topics discussed at this year’s Data Specialists/Information Technologists Summitearlier this month. This year, 79 attendees from 24 states joined NCSC for two days of data and information technology presentations and discussions at the Maryland Judicial Center in Annapolis. Experts from courts, academia, and partner agencies joined NCSC staff to share trends and best practices.
“Both data and technology have become increasingly important to courts. Events like the summit provide an invaluable opportunity for us to take the time to think strategically about collection and use of state court data, now and in the future,” said Diane Robinson, an NCSC principal court research associate and summit organizer.
The agenda featured sessions on the National Open Court Data Standards, use of data to improve court services and communication, implications of record clearance initiatives on court data, and data quality improvement. Attendees also explored emerging topics like “AI and Court Data” and “Ethics and AI.”
NCSC Data Scientist Andre Assumpcao offered a live workshop, “Beyond ChatGPT: How can AI tools help you?” where he shared NCSC’s experience using large language models, such as ChatGPT, to extract data from court documents. The workshop was part of NCSC’s new product, the Data Dives series, and featured a demonstration of a data pipeline, which took in PDF documents, performed Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for extracting the text, and then restructured the textual information into a CSV file using ChatGPT.
View the workshop, presentation slides, and session notebook online at ncsc.org/datadives.
The SJI Board of Directors will be meeting on Monday, September 18, 2023, at 1:00 PM CT. The purpose of this meeting is to consider grant applications for the 4th quarter of FY 2023, and other business.
ADDRESS: Kansas Judicial Center, 301 SW 10th Avenue 1st Floor Conference Room, Topeka, Kansas.
Court-based self-help services are more available to the public through increased remote access, according to a new report released by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice (Massachusetts Appleseed). “Self-help centers benefit courts and court users alike. Litigants who visit a self-help center are more likely to file paperwork that is legally sufficient. Having litigants better prepared for court appearances saves time for judges and court staff,” said Lonni Summers, an NCSC senior court management consultant leading the report. “Self-help centers also educate members of the public about how the court system works, enhancing public trust and confidence in state courts.”
A lifeline to millions of Americans who face civil legal problems without a lawyer, self-help centers help bridge the civil justice gap by providing access to legal information, advice, and referrals to counsel. Self-help centers support individuals by helping explain court processes, fill out and file court forms, and connect with wraparound services, including language access services and rental assistance programs.
In addition to increased remote service delivery via phone, chat, email or videoconferencing, the report identified some additional trends in the national survey data from 32 states:
The report also identifies areas where self-help centers can make targeted improvements based on respondent feedback and author expertise. Led by NCSC’s Access Team, the report encourages courts to find the best recommendations and resources to support their specific self-help program needs.
“New centers can learn how to build on their foundation and support the program’s growth. Experienced centers can find new ways to reach deeper into their communities, consider additional ways to provide their services, and maximize program efficiency and effectiveness,” Summers said.
The report, “Court-Based Self-Help Centers: National Survey Findings, Recommendations, and Best Practices,” is available online at ncsc.org/self-help.
Policy Research Associates (PRA) is pleased to announce the findings from its recently completed project, “Understanding the Population of People with Frequent Jail Contact.” This mixed-methods project examined the flow of people with frequent jail contact through the criminal legal system across three counties in the United States. The project assessed the counties’ strategies to reduce frequent jail contact, especially the impact that those strategies had on People of Color and people with behavioral health conditions.
Through their analysis, the authors developed the following recommendations:
To highlight and provide context for these recommendations, Policy Research has assembled a microsite that houses the following resources:
Access here: https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/7hEp4jmTAuFkP
