State Justice Institute

SJI Awards FY 2022 First Quarter Grants

The SJI Board of Directors met virtually on December 6, 2021 to make decisions on quarterly grant applications, and approved a total of 11 new grants.

Five (5) Strategic Initiatives Grants were awarded: 1) the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to support Phase III of the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators (CCJ/COSCA) Pandemic Rapid Response Team (RRT). The RRT will work with NCSC in Phase III on the transition to implementation of the innovative strategies courts have used to operate during COVID-19. This is in addition to support that SJI provided to 12 projects that are assisting state and local courts in their response to, and recovery from, COVID-19, with a look towards the future of court operations; 2) the NCSC to support the CCJ/COSCA Leveling of the Scales of Justice initiative. The initiative will create a set of practical, evidence-based tools and recommended processes as an Action Blueprint for Racial Justice. With SJI support in FY 2021, work on the Blueprint commenced with the development, testing, and future dissemination of a comprehensive, research-informed, data-driven organizational assessment tool that will enable judicial leaders to determine how best to ensure racial and ethnic fairness in their courts; 3) The NCSC and Rulo Strategies to support Phase II of the Rural Justice Collaborative (RJC). The Collaborative provides direct technical assistance to rural communities and stakeholders, and is supported by a cross-sector advisory council composed of rural judges from across the United States, along with additional stakeholders in the justice, child welfare, and behavioral health systems. . In Phase II, the RJC will provide technical assistance to up to thirty communities with a focus on justice stakeholders; 4) Policy Research Associates (PRA) to examine the scope, mechanisms, and effectiveness of strategies and approaches that civil and criminal courts are using to provide non-legal aid to help people with unmet needs better navigate the court system, and have their needs identified and addressed; and 5) support to the Cady Family Initiative, along with experts in trauma-informed technology approaches in family law, experts from Indiana and Stanford Universities, representatives of court case management systems, developers of protection order portals, and online dispute resolution providers to prototype a triage process that identifies risk and the services needed to resolve family cases.

Two (2) Project Grants were awarded: 1) The National Association for Court Management (NACM) to: develop and deliver nationally significant educational programs, related material, and curriculum with continued focus on SJI Priority Investment Areas and the NACM Core®; and continue distant learning opportunities to broaden the scope and delivery of educational opportunities available in a convenient and flexible method accessed by judges, court managers, administrators, and other judicial branch employees to include many of NACM’s justice partners; 2) the New York Unified Court System to develop and implement a mandatory, comprehensive, and sustainable racial bias, cultural awareness, and procedural justice education and training program for all judges and court staff. The project will include an evaluation of the impact this training has on judges, staff, and court culture.

Four (4) Technical Assistance Grants were awarded:. 1) the Wyoming Judicial Branch for a compensation/salary assessment, review human resources policies, practices, and rules related to employee compensation; and development of a new pay schedule/pay grades; 2) the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida to plan the development of a solution for Self-Represented Litigants that provides interactive engagements with the Court’s website and physical locations; 3) the Yavapai County, Arizona, Superior Court to enable the Court’s leadership, in collaboration with community and justice system partners, to reimagine and transform how court services are delivered, and develop a roadmap and strategies for making continued improvements; and 4) the Florida Office of the State Courts Administrator to improve civil court processes and procedures by identifying patterns and themes of data entry errors related to case status.

The next deadline for grant applications is February 1, 2022.

Chatbots in the Criminal Justice System: An Overview of Chatbots and Their Underlying Technologies and Applications

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) supported the Criminal Justice Testing and Evaluation Consortium has released a technology brief to help us better understand the use of chatbots in criminal justice. (Chatbots are computer programs designed to simulate conversation with human users.) Five major takeaways include…

1. Chatbots have the potential to improve efficiency, reduce costs and workloads, expand capabilities, and aid users across many criminal justice use cases; however, capturing these gains requires forethought and may require significant investment and time.

2. Stakeholders should consider the economic, operational, legal, safety, and privacy implications of implementing chatbots.

3. Despite advances in AI, deploying AI-driven chatbots is not a “plug-and-play” opportunity for criminal justice applications; access to high-quality data for training the chatbot is critical for success.

4. Chatbots have the potential to reduce administrative burden by freeing up staff to work on higher value tasks; however, the organization needs to consider how it will ensure human oversight of the chatbot to mitigate any potential risks.

5. The continuous advancement of AI, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP) will expand chatbot use cases and applications in the criminal justice system.

For more information and to download the full report, please visit: Chatbots in the Criminal Justice System (cjtec.org)

Putting Children and Families First in Dependency Case Management and Scheduling

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), in partnership with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), funded by State Justice Institute, synthesized best practices in juvenile and family court and case management principles to develop an adaptable and responsive online training curriculum. The curriculum helps courts assess their adherence to principles of case management and scheduling and investigate research-supported strategies for increasing effective case management in dependency cases.

For more information and to access the case management curriculum, please visit: https://www.ncsc.org/services-and-experts/areas-of-expertise/children-and-families/caseflow-management-curriculum.

Court Voices Project – LaGratta Consulting

Twelve courts from around the country have completed a six-month pilot as part of LaGratta Consulting’s Court Voices Project, where they asked both court staff and court users for their feedback on courts’ pandemic responses. While most of the pilot courts had little to no experience collecting feedback from court users in the past, all were able to use tablet kiosks, web links, and/or QR codes to solicit insights. All in, over 275 court staff and over 3,000 court users participated. A complete project report is forthcoming in early 2022, but included here are some initial findings.

The range of feedback methods and contexts was vast, from links within Zoom hearings or court chat functions to in-person feedback kiosks as court users left the clerk’s window area or a particular courtroom. Most courts utilized more than one method to compare feedback between remote versus in-person services, as well as by different touchpoints of the court process, for example, at arraignments versus after status hearings.

The most common feedback topic among pilot courts was court users’ preferred mode of service: essentially, would you have rather handled your court business differently and why? Court user perspectives on these questions ranged dramatically from site to site based on court type, jurisdiction type and size, case type, and geography, to name a few factors. About half of court users appearing in-person in most courts said they prefer in-person service over remote alternatives (e.g., virtual court, phone, or email). In one court, the preference for in-person court was as high as 75%. But when the same question was asked of court users after utilizing a remote alternative, the responses show a more complex picture: even in a court where over half of in-person users prefer in-person, up to 100% of court users appearing remotely said they prefer remote. This suggests that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and when given a choice, court users might self-select into the service type that is best for them.

Preferences on specific types of remote alternatives varied too. In one court, 29% of court users said they’d prefer a “by phone” remote option; in another court, no one preferred that alternative. Regarding the rationale for these preferences, project findings add nuance to the conventional wisdom that convenience equates to remote services. While pilot feedback confirmed that most court users who prefer remote services identify ‘convenience’ as the main reason for that preference, ‘convenience’ is often cited as the reason court users prefer in-person service, as well. In one court, it was the top reason court users preferred in-person services.

Write-in comments from court users provide dimension to these findings, such as:

“It was very helpful coming in person actually talking to someone getting to know the many options,” “don’t trust unless in person,” and “Quiero ver la juez y explicar” [translation: I want to see the judge and explain]).

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Spanish-speaking court users were most likely to name “ease of understanding” as their reason for preferring in-person services.

Other court user comments alerted court leaders to potential deficiencies in their service delivery:

“I called and couldn’t get a live person so emailed which of course was easier.“
“Email address was on citation, would have liked to have been provided a phone number to contact“

Two main take-aways so far: (1) Courts should offer a menu of service options informed by local feedback, and (2) Tailored feedback should be invited in a range of contexts to ensure representative and useful insights. Simply importing the lessons from other courts or national studies may lead court leaders in the wrong direction.

A project toolkit detailing these findings and others will be published in early 2022 at: www.lagratta.com/court-voices-project.

The Pew Charitable Trusts Webinar: How Courts Embraced Technology, Met the Pandemic Challenge, and Revolutionized Their Operations

Register Now! Tuesday, November 30th from 2-3PM EST. The Pew Charitable Trusts will be hosting: Pandemic Spurs Court Technology Revolution: Previewing Pew’s New Report on Courts’ Use of Technology and the Path Forward.

Listen to a sneak preview of, “How Courts Embraced Technology, Met the Pandemic Challenge, and Revolutionized Their Operations.”

To Register: https://lnkd.in/dtZjYnfK

New Court ₵ents Podcast has been released!

SJI’s latest Court ₵ents Podcast has been released!

Jonathan Mattiello, Executive Director of the State Justice Institute, shares changes to SJI’s Priority Investment Areas, as well as SJI Grant Opportunities. Listen here to the latest podcast. #court¢ents

SJI’s Court ₵ents Podcast Series can also be found on our Funding Toolkit page at Home – SJI Funding Toolkit.

State of the State Courts 2021 Poll Results

Should remote hearings stay, or go? Results from the National Center for State Courts (NCSC)’s recent annual survey of public opinion finds that a majority of respondents believe that courts should continue to conduct remote hearings. Results show that majority of respondents believe courts should continue to hold hearings by video because it allows them to hear more cases and resolve cases more quickly, and it makes it easier for people to participate without having to travel to a courthouse, take time off work and find childcare.

This year’s survey also finds that large numbers of respondents indicate that barriers to getting to a physical courthouse exist, including a remarkable 49 percent who indicated that the distance they would need to travel to reach their courthouse would be a problem for them.

To read the full article, please visit State of the State Courts | NCSC.

Join the National Judicial Network

The National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP), working in partnership with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) on a State Justice Institute (SJI) funded project is pleased to invite you to participate in the National Judicial Network: Forum on Human Trafficking and Immigration in State Courts (“The Network”). The Network is seeking judges, commissioners, magistrates, Tribal judges, and other judicial officers to join the National Judicial Network, a peer to peer forum. The Network will provide a forum for judges to engage in peer-to-peer learning sessions with judges from across the country, participate in webinars, communicate with other judges in a member-only confidential Slack/Listserv, access topic-specific publications, and attend future in-person trainings on issues that arise in state courts involving human trafficking and immigrant victims.

For more information please visit: https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/wp-content/uploads/NJN-Outreach-Letter-06.15.21.pdf and https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/pubs/njn-outreach-flyer

Nine Rural Innovation Sites Selected

Nine of the country’s most innovative rural justice programs have been selected to serve as models for other communities as part of the Rural Justice Collaborative (RJC) Initiative. This initiative – a project of NCSC, Rulo Strategies and funded by State Justice Institute – will work with these sites to create educational materials for an online resource center and provide training opportunities.

The Nine (9) Innovation Sites selected include:
* South Carolina Victim Assistance Network Reaching Rural Initiative
* Lazarus Recovery Services in North Carolina
* The Center for Empowering Victims of Gender-Based Violence in Kansas
* The Rural Attorney Recruitment Program in South Dakota
* The Rural Incubator Project for Lawyers in Montana
* Texas Dispute Resolution System: Rural Mediation
* Public Defender Corporation Recovery Coach Project in West Virginia
* Scott County Coordinated Community Response (CCR) Team in Tennessee
* Family Accountability and Recovery Court in North Carolina

For more information please visit: https://www.ruraljusticecollaborative.org/innovation-sites

Convening County, Court & Justice Leaders: A Framework for Cross-System Collaboration Initiative

Funded by State Justice Institute, The National Association of Counties (NACo) and its partners at Rulo Strategies and Praxis Consulting have created the Convening County, Court & Justice Leaders: A Framework for Cross-System Collaboration Initiative. This new project initiative is designed to support court and county leaders as they partner to establish local strategic priorities and align resources to achieve their justice and public safety goals. The project will be supporting up to 10 counties focusing on enhancing justice systems, improving public safety and achieving better outcomes. Applications are due on December 6^th, 2021. Apply Now! https://www.naco.org/blog/apply-now-convening-county-court-justice-leaders-initiative