Category: News

The Rural Justice Exchange is a publication dedicated to advancing collaboration, innovation, and learning across the rural justice and behavioral health landscape. Each issue highlights emerging research, promising practices, and local success stories that reflect the unique strengths and challenges of rural communities. Through features such as articles, podcasts, webinars, and program spotlights, the Exchange showcases how practitioners, policymakers, and partners are working together to build resilient communities. Designed as a resource for rural leaders and practitioners, the Exchange connects readers to practical tools, evidence-based strategies, and peer experiences that inspire meaningful and sustainable change in rural systems.

View the February 2026 Edition here.

Seventy-six percent of state courts are limited jurisdiction courts serving local communities—often under-resourced and without the same access to modern technology as larger court systems.

To advance modernization and improve access to justice in these jurisdictions, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is launching a new initiative focused on applying AI tools to address long-standing structural challenges that limit efficiency, accessibility, and service quality in rural courts. The effort is supported by Microsoft, whose technology will inform potential solutions. The initiative aims to help close the digital divide facing the nation’s rural courts. “Because small and rural often sit at the intersection of the digital divide and legal deserts, this work carries significant implications for access to justice and equity,” said Nicole Waters, NCSC director of data, analytics, and forecasting. “Through this initiative, NCSC will work directly with courts to modernize operations and develop practical solutions that can be adapted by rural courts nationwide.”

Cohort courts

Four rural courts, or courts serving underrepresented communities, will be selected to participate in a hands-on, year-long process. NCSC will work closely with court staff to identify operational challenges and workflows that will guide the development and testing of AI-enabled solutions. NCSC will also provide training and technical assistance to support long-term sustainability.

“Microsoft has developed tools that may be useful for some of these jurisdictions when paired with the right guidance and implementation support,” Waters said. “NCSC’s role is to help courts assess what works, implement appropriate solutions, and share lessons learned more broadly.”

Apply to participate Courts can learn more about the opportunity during a March 10th webinar, “AI solutions for courts to address the digital divide,” at 3PM EST. Waters and staff from NCSC, joined by representatives from Microsoft, will share additional details about the initiative and application process. Participating courts are expected to be selected in May.

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) offers a range of practical resources to help courts understand and adopt artificial intelligence responsibly, including a set of AI readiness materials that give courts a clear framework for assessing preparedness, identifying risks and opportunities, and planning for responsible implementation that was made possible through support from the State Justice Institute. These resources help court leaders understand where their organization stands today and outline concrete steps to build capacity, strengthen governance, and ensure that AI tools are used in ways that support fairness, transparency, and public trust. In addition to the AI readiness framework, NCSC provides guidance on topics such as document automation, data analytics, chatbots, and other emerging tools that can improve efficiency and access to justice. Courts can also explore policy guidance, national examples, and opportunities to learn from peers through ongoing webinars and collaborative forums.

Featured AI resources:

• AI readiness for state courtsA comprehensive framework that helps court leaders assess their current level of AI readiness and identify concrete steps to improve preparedness.
• AI guides and resources
  A curated listing of NCSC tools and resources to assist courts in understanding and responding to emerging AI-related issues.
• TRI/NCSC AI Policy Consortium for Law & Courts
  A collaboration between NCSC and the Thomson Reuters Institute that brings together courts, legal professionals, and technologists to develop shared principles, guidance, and model approaches for AI governance.
• AI Policy Consortium webinar series
  A monthly webinar series that educates the judiciary and legal professionals about AI and generative AI, helping judges make informed decisions about adoption and use.
• AI and state court guidelinesAn interactive map showcasing court orders, rules, proposed rules, and AI-related guidelines and policies from across the nation.
• Court AI Implementers’ Forum
  A collaborative community for court professionals working on AI initiatives to exchange ideas, share lessons learned, and connect with peers.
• NCSC AI Sandbox
  A low-pressure, hands-on chatbot environment designed for court professionals to safely explore AI. Participants can test tools and build confidence knowing their data will not be used to train commercial AI models.

For more information on NCSC’s AI resources and the SJI-supported readiness materials, visit ncsc.org/ai.

Children, teens, and young adults often enter the justice system because their health, education, and safety needs aren’t met. As a result, justice systems are dealing with challenges they were never designed to address. The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center’s new research-based guide can help states prevent violence, expand opportunities, and keep youth out of the justice system. The Youth Safety Playbook for States includes a community-based service continuum, strategies for financing, infrastructure, policy, service, workforce, and a checklist for implementing each strategy This playbook is a product of the CSG Justice Center’s Collaborating for Youth and Public Safety Initiative (CYPSI), which partners with states to strengthen and scale research-based services and supports for youth and their families.

Access the playbook here: Youth Safety Playbook for States – CSG Justice Center

The SJI Board met on December 15th, 2025, and awarded 18 new grant applications totaling $2.0 million for the 1^st quarter of FY 2026. 

The Board awarded six (6) Strategic Initiative Grants (SIG) to: National Center for State Courts (NCSC), in partnership with the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA for Phase I of a nationwide coordinated effort to develop modern expertise, tools, and updated best practices that can be adopted by all courts to improve the safety of court facilities and the public who use them; the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) to launch a training and technical assistance initiative on teen dating violence and domestic child sex trafficking as both independent and intersecting issues for courts and jurisdictions facing these issues; the NCSC for Phase II of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Readiness Initiative which will assist state developing and implementing their own AI governance structure as described in the SJI-funded AI Readiness Guide, update and expand the Guide based on courts’ experiences, and host an AI Readiness Lab for up to 15 courts; the Justice Management Institute, working with Kalamuna, Inc., for Phase II of the Online and Case Resolution (OCR) initiative by engaging new pilot courts in developing policy and implementation plans for OCR for traffic and misdemeanor cases, writing the requirements for OCR expansion across Louisiana, and planning and designing the OCR open-source online repository with access to the software and derivative applications; the NCSC and its partners for Phase II of the State Courts Role in Effective Justice for Young People Initiative to continue responding to request for technical assistance and developing court-based solutions to common barriers in administering justice to those aged 18-24; and Policy Research Associates to update a national scan of non-lawyer, non-legal programs across the U.S., develop and validate performance metrics for evaluating these programs, and implementation support to jurisdictions interested in evaluating their programs.

Three (3) Project Grants to: the National Association for Court Management (NACM) to develop and deliver nationally significant education programs, related material, and curricula with a continued focus on SJI’s Priority Investment Areas and the NACM Core®; the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts, in partnership with the Washington District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association to launch the Jurist in Residence program to ensure that every newly appointed or elected judge in courts of limited jurisdiction receives the mentorship, tools, and leadership needed to transition successfully into their role; and Four Corners Group, Inc., in partnership with the Cobb County, Georgia, Juvenile Court to deploy an intensive, multi-tiered support system that engages youth while in custody and reintegrates them in the school system to promote behavioral change and academic progression.

Nine (9) Technical Assistance Grant applications were awarded to: the Supreme Court of New Mexico to examine the possible use of authorized justice practitioners across the state, especially rural areas; the Coconino County, California, Superior Court for a strategic planning project; American University to support the National Judicial Network on human trafficking and the state courts; Santa Cruz County, California, Superior Court for a strategic planning initiative, the Supreme Court of Nevada and the Nevada Department of Human Services/Division of Child and Family Services for a youth justice system review; the Oregon Judicial Department for a case management assessment in Deschutes County; the Supreme Court of Virginia for a civic literacy and e-learning project; and the Cleveland, Ohio, Municipal Court to implement a Continuity of Operations Plan.

A Curriculum Adaptation and Training Grant was awarded to the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks to support educational programming and seminars.

The next deadline for grant applications is February 1st, 2026 (2^nd Quarter of FY 2026).

The FY 2026 1st Quarter SJI Board Meeting was held on Monday, December 15th, 2025, at the Pennsylvania Judicial Center in Harrisburg, PA. SJI Executive Director, Jonathan Mattiello, Senior Program Advisor, Michelle White, and members of the SJI Board were joined by Justice P. Kevin Brobson of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, State Court Administrator, Andrea Tuominen, and staff of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC).

#SJIBoardofDirectors #SJIBoard #StateJusticeInstitute #SJIBoardMeeting #PennsylvaniaJudicialCenter #PennsylvaniaSupremeCourt #FY2026

The IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, has just launched the Uncomplicated Courts Initiative, a national effort to redesign how people navigate high-volume civil cases.

SJI is honored to fund this initiative—driving forward solutions that make our courts clearer, easier to navigate, and more responsive to the people they serve. Through this initiative, IAALS aims to create a justice journey that is simpler, more supportive, and more responsive to the millions of people who navigate these cases each year. It will provide a clear, research-driven framework that will:

• Map and streamline the full case pathway to eliminate unnecessary steps
• Integrate legal help strategically—from lawyers to allied professionals to navigators
• Develop user-centered technology that guides people through forms and required actions
• Pilot redesigned models with courts and create a replicable national blueprint

“Justice should serve people, not confuse them,” said Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson (Ret.) of the Texas Supreme Court. “Uncomplicated Courts is about removing needless complexity so people can resolve their disputes and protect their rights even if they cannot find a lawyer.”

Read the full article here: https://iaals.du.edu/blog/iaals-launches-uncomplicated-courts-initiative-redesign-justice-journey-all

#UncomplicatedCourtsInitiative #SJI #IAALS #Collaboration #Courts #JusticeSystem #HighVolumeCivilCases #StateCourts

IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, and the Berkeley Judicial Institute (BJI)—with support from the State Justice Institute—recently released A Blueprint for Judicial Innovation, which details takeaways from Advancing Innovation: A National Summit on Judicial Leadership. The publication distills insights from a national gathering of nearly 50 judicial leaders across 30 jurisdictions and offers concrete guidance for judges who are ready to drive people-centered reform across our justice system.

Throughout the country, courts are grappling with unmet legal needs, complex and opaque processes, widening inequities, and declining public trust. The Blueprint makes a simple, urgent case: judicial leadership is indispensable to rebuilding confidence and modernizing court systems. It presents a practical roadmap—rooted in real courtroom experiences—for judges to lead change ethically, effectively, and sustainably.

“Innovation is not an optional add-on to judging. A judge’s ability to do justice is directly informed by the quality of our justice system. Judges must be active participants in the work to improve our justice system so that it can fulfill the promise of equal justice for all,” said IAALS CEO Brittany Kauffman. “This Blueprint translates aspiration into action and identifies the resources judges need, the obstacles they face, and the concrete steps that move courts from status quo to people-centered systems.”

Drawing from sessions, roundtables, and skill-building workshops, the Blueprint highlights:

• Resources judges need to succeed: Engaged people and partners, reliable technology and data capacity, diverse funding, time, a culture of creativity and iteration, and robust wellness supports.

• The role of judges in leading innovation: Why frontline insight and judicial authority are pivotal for systems-level change.

• Competencies of innovative leadership: From strategic thinking and data use to coalition-building and judicial wellness.

• Common barriers and how to overcome them: Resource constraints, status-quo bias, ethical misconceptions, siloing, and collaboration challenges—paired with strategies to build buy-in and momentum.

• Actionable strategies for the bench: Normalize change, question assumptions, pilot and iterate, gather data, engage skeptics, simplify processes, communicate clearly, and just get started.

Read the full report here.

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has just launched a new court planning framework, funded by the State Justice Institute, designed to strengthen court resilience and responsiveness by incorporating a rigorous focus on the future. Building on the Just Horizons work, the Future Ready Courts (FRC) framework helps courts anticipate and prepare for a wide range of potential scenarios, making it easier to adapt when change occurs.

“For many of us, thinking about the future is hard, especially with so many competing priorities right in front of us. It takes time and mental energy because we can’t just rely on what we already know,” said Pam Casey, NCSC vice president of research and design. “But thinking about the future can also be liberating, an opportunity to zoom out and see possibilities that are not evident when we are only focused on today. The FRC framework intentionally gives us space to think about and prepare for those possibilities.”

Future-focused framework

By integrating future-focused activities, the FRC framework helps courts think rigorously and systematically about the future, expanding our typical approach to strategic planning.

Strategic foresight, a critical pillar of the framework, helps courts identify drivers of change and envision alternative scenarios to see the bigger picture and help courts consider how core business functions and operations might change in both the near and distant future.

The FRC framework includes three interconnected components:

1. Strategic foresight: Envisioning alternative scenarios by identifying key drivers of change, emerging trends, and signals that influence the court’s future.
2. Strategic planning: Setting strategic priorities, goals, and objectives that align with the court’s mission, vision, and values.
3. Executing and adapting: Implementing plans, tracking results, and adapting strategic priorities to maintain resilience.

Future-proof your court with the comprehensive guide, “Building Future Ready Courts,” and read the full article here: Building future ready courts | National Center for State Courts