Registration now open! Funded by State Justice Institute, ICM offers a wide variety of high-quality, evidence-based courses for court professionals and the general public. If you’re looking to advance your career, take a look into these courses. Registration for all 2023 virtual courses is now open! Courses fill up quickly, so be sure to register early: https://courses.ncsc.org National Center for State Courts
Funded by State Justice Insititute, the Judicial Task Force releases the final report from the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness. Continued collaboration between the courts, government agencies, mental health providers and others is critical to affect the systemic change needed to improve how courts respond to individuals with serious mental illness. That was the message echoed during Tuesday’s release of the final report from the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness. The virtual event drew about 900 participants, including court officials, behavioral health professionals, and members of the news media.
“We see how the justice system can become a never-ending highway of pain as it maneuvers people on a needless journey, with no off ramp, often to ineffective support and treatment,” said task force member Circuit Judge Nan Waller of Multnomah County, Oregon. “However, having had the privilege to serve on the task force has given me great optimism. The task force operated in a manner consistent with its recommendations, bringing together stakeholders from the behavioral health and justice systems, along with the important voices of those with lived experience, and then providing expert staff to help turn our thoughts and ideas into tools, bench cards, policy briefs, and research.”
Judge Waller joined task force co-chairs Chief Justice Paul L. Reiber of Vermont and New York Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks to offer insights on ways the task force recommendations can positively impact individuals with severe mental illness during Tuesday’s virtual launch and policy discussion.
Two national mental health experts – Miriam E. Delphin-Rittmon, Ph.D., the U.S. Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use and leader of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Dr. Sarah Y. Vinson, Interim Chair of the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Morehouse School of Medicine – elaborated on ways the behavioral health community can partner with the courts to improve outcomes for individuals with serious mental illness.
“We know that our country is facing a mental health crisis,” Dr. Delphin-Rittmon said. “… I am confident that these recommendations and examples of successful programs have the potential to make really meaningful impacts in communities across the country.”
Among the task force recommendations, state courts should:
Watch the recording of the webinar and download a copy of the final report and recommendations.
During the pandemic, courts stepped out of their normal routine and comfort zones to find new ways of doing business. These new procedures benefitted both courts and court customers. The National Center for State Courts (NCSC)’s new Pandemic Era Procedural Improvements toolkit outlines tips and examples that your court can adopt to enhance operations in the post-pandemic era.
“The pandemic was a major disruptor. I think about other major disruptors that changed society—cars, TV, mobile phones. We didn’t stop at the Benz Patent Motor Car, black and white television, or car phones,” said Lonni Summers, an NCSC senior court management consultant. “We continued to innovate and evolve to make things better. Courts should do the same with pandemic-era procedural improvements.”
This toolkit contains a high-level summary of procedural improvements that courts implemented between 2020 and 2022 that courts should adopt permanently. Resources include examples, best practice recommendations, and references to publications and materials that provide information, models, and guidance for jurisdictions that want to adopt these improvements.
For more information, please read Pandemic-Improvements-10.31.2022.pdf (ncsc.org)
Upcoming Webinar! Hosted by SAMHSA’s GAINS Center on Monday, November 21st, 2022, from 2:30-4:00PM EST. Black Robes and White Coats: Using Project ECHO to Increase Judiciary Knowledge about Substance Use Disorder. High rates of substance use and overdoses among people interfacing with the criminal justice system have highlighted a need for judges to be more informed and aware of substance use disorders and optimal treatment approaches. Register here.
In January 2022, the National Association of Counties, Rulo Strategies, and Praxis Consulting launched a new initiative to support justice-oriented strategic planning co-led by judges and elected county leaders. This timely project leveraged the renewed interest many courts have, coming out of the pandemic, in partnering with local stakeholders to expand the resources available to the courts.
Ten diverse local and regional sites served as pilots. Some sites aligned their work under an existing planning group, while others formed new planning bodies to support their planning. Each site engaged diverse stakeholders representing the court, elected county leadership, law enforcement, corrections, behavioral health, and other stakeholders.
Informed by the work with the ten sites, the project team launched a national toolkit highlighting the key components of the planning initiative. The County, Court, and Justice Leaders Framework is a resource for court leaders and their partners to explore a variety of effective models that span pre-arrest diversion strategies to reentry models that reduce recidivism. The toolkit is also a one-stop shop for the most up-to-date information and research published by leading national experts. Various topics are addressed in the toolkit, including strategies to reduce community violence, build a behavioral health continuum, reduce overdose deaths, establish diversion and alternative to incarceration opportunities, strengthen family justice systems, and reintegrate individuals back into the community upon reentry. Court, county and justice leaders can also access federal funding resources that align with different strategies and information about no cost technical assistance opportunities.
“This project reminds me of the stone soup parable. You have the one person who brings the magical stone to the town, and people say they have nothing to contribute. But this person helps people understand that they have something to contribute. They get one person to bring the carrots and one to bring the potatoes, and all of a sudden, and they have this amazing soup. This is what this project is about – the consultant team bringing ideas to our communities but empowering us to take action as a collective.”
-Judge Tamara R. Bernstein, Cambria County
IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, released Unbundled Legal Services in the New Normal—a new report highlighting key takeaways from the national 2021 conference—in partnership with The Chicago Bar Foundation, the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and the Self-Represented Litigation Network. Accompanying the release is the launch of an unbundling resource center on IAALS’ website, which will help various stakeholders like consumers, lawyers, and courts get how-to information on promoting and utilizing unbundled legal services.
Unbundled legal services, or limited-scope representation, is one way that people who are unable to afford a lawyer—and would end up representing themselves in court—can still receive legal assistance in their case. While typically lawyers handle all aspects of a case from beginning to end, a lawyer providing unbundled legal services works on and charges for only certain legal tasks within the broader case, often based on what their clients can afford and need help with most. Unbundled legal services are becoming a more popular and less expensive way to help people get legal assistance, which usually leads to better legal outcomes than forgoing legal assistance altogether.
The three-day event highlighted that while there is increased use of technology and scalable unbundled services in this “new normal”—which makes starting an unbundled practice easier—important startup and ethical considerations remain for practitioners in this space, in addition to needed increased support by courts. The conference created a forum where an array of stakeholders shared their perspectives, gained better insights into collaborative roles, and learned about best practices to advocate for this service delivery model.
To read the full report, visit: IAALS Launches New Report and Online Resource Center for Unbundled Legal Services, Offering New Tools that Lead to Access to Justice | IAALS (du.edu)
The emergence of COVID-19 has had widespread effects throughout the court system and quarantine orders slowed operations. The Supreme Court of Ohio anticipated an influx of evictions and foreclosure filings in Ohio’s trial courts, as well as a backlog of civil cases. Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor directed the Office of Court Services to convene stakeholders to analyze projected caseloads, create strategies for backlogs, and modernize court operations through technology. The Evictions Report and Recommendations and Foreclosures and Civil Justice Report were developed, both recommending the use of online dispute resolution (ODR). Subsequently, through a grant from the State Justice Institute, ODR was expanded in Ohio.
OH-Resolve, a vendor hosted ODR for 15 pilot sites, is a court-monitored messaging system designed to help parties resolve evictions, small claims, foreclosures, and family law cases. ODR increases access to justice for self-represented litigants and is a convenient way for litigants to resolve disputes from a computer or smartphone.
Tools were developed to assist courts with implementation on the Supreme Court’s webpage. FAQs for Courts, FAQs for Public, court user instructions, a legal glossary, the ODR Toolkit and instructional videos were created to help guide parties and the courts through the ODR process.
As Ohio continues to explore ODR best practices in different types of cases, it will be an ongoing opportunity to provide courts with another method to resolve legal issues while providing citizens of the State of Ohio an additional way to access the court system by utilizing technology.
Register Now! Children and Family Futures (CFF) will be hosting Family Treatment Court (FTC) Practice Academy 2022: Beyond Counting: Strategies to Collect and (Actually) Use Your FTC Data on August 30th, 2022, at 2:00PM EST. FTC teams use data to achieve equitable access and results, identify barriers to success, and support sustainability—all with the common purpose of improving outcomes for children, parents, and family members affected by substance use disorders.
Register here: Meeting Registration – Zoom
Upcoming Webinar! The National Judicial College (NJC) will be hosting: The Role of Risk Assessments & Evaluations in Sentencing Drug-Impaired Drivers tomorrow: Wednesday, August 17th, 2022, from 3:00-4:15PM EST.
In this webinar, participants will cite the need for, and difference between, DUI specific assessment tools and identify how to best utilize them when sentencing drug-impaired drives.
To register now for this free online webinar: The Role of Risk Assessments & Evaluations in Sentencing Drug-Impaired Drivers – The National Judicial College (judges.org)
The National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW), the Children’s Bureau (CB) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) have collaborated to create: Engaging Parents and Youth with Lived Experience: Strengthening Collaborative Policy and Practice Initiatives for Families with Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders. This resource provides key considerations for recruiting and engaging those with lived experience who were involved with child welfare associated with a substance use disorder or other mental health challenge. It also highlights considerations for engaging youth who have spent time in the foster care system.
Parents and youth can offer valuable insight, based on first-hand experience, that helps agencies implement strategies to improve outcomes for those served.
To access this new resource: Final_LiveExperience (hhs.gov)
