Category: News

On May 23rd, 2024, President Biden nominated Bethany Pickett Shah to the SJI Board of Directors. She will fill a public member position previously held by Judge John Nalbandian, who resigned after becoming a Circuit Court Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  

Ms. Shah is an attorney with Jackson Walker LLP, where she specializes in complex commercial litigation, government investigations, and white-collar defense. Prior to private practice, she served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas, where she represented the United States in criminal prosecutions and civil litigation. Before becoming a prosecutor, she worked at the White House as Deputy Associate Counsel to the President, and at the Department of Justice as a Counsel in the Civil Rights Division and Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy. She is the recipient of several awards for her service, including the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas’s Dedicated Service Award. She has also been appointed by the judges of the Eastern District of Texas to serve on the district’s Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel. Ms. Shah is a graduate of The King’s College and Northwestern University School of Law. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

#NewResource Trauma-Informed Practices for Criminal Courts: Implementation Opportunities, the Center for Justice Innovation‘s new resource, funded by the State Justice Institute, has been released.

How can criminal courts implement trauma-informed practices? This is the focus of the latest work from the Office of National Initiative’s Recovery and Reform and Gender and Family Justice team’s, whom are providing judges, clerks, bailiffs, and attorneys with guidance on responding to trauma in their courts. Trauma-Informed Practices for Criminal Courts: Implementation Opportunities documents initial lessons learned from a national scan of trauma-informed practices in criminal courts and forms the basis for the Trauma-Informed Practice Strategy Lab’s forthcoming implementation blueprint.

Access the resource here: https://www.innovatingjustice.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2024/CJI_-SJI-Guide-TA-Trauma-Informed-Practices-Criminal-Courts-04302024.pdf

Members of the SJI Board, Executive Director, Jonathan Mattiello, and Senior Program Advisor, Michelle White, visited the National Judicial College (NJC) in Reno, Nevada on April 9th, 2024. Pictured with President & CEO Hon. Benes Aldana (Ret.), Chief Academic Officer, Joy Lyngar, and Chief of Staff, Chrystn Eads.

SJI received 14 grant applications requesting a total of $1,800,068 for the 2^nd quarter of FY 2024. The Board met on April 8, 2024, at the Supreme Court of Nevada to make decisions on those applications.

During its meeting, the Board awarded five (5) Strategic Initiatives Grant to: 1) the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), in partnership with the Conference of Chief Justices, the Conference of State Court Administrators, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation to convene a national summit and provide technical assistance to arm state court leaders and their partners with the best available information on effective policy and practice approaches to serve young people; 2) the NCSC to provide state courts with tangible approaches to improve plain language and clear communication on court forms through Forms Camp 2024; 3) The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, in collaboration with the Berkeley Judicial Institute to support a national summit on judicial leadership; 4) NCJFCJ, in partnership with the Judicial Studies Graduate Degree Program at the University of Nevada Reno and the Kempe Center to develop a e-learning course on the science of medical evidence in child abuse and neglect cases; and 5) the NCJFCJ to improve the juvenile and family court system’s ability to identify youth who are experiencing housing insecurity and connect them with services.

One (1) Project Grant application was awarded to the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts to conduct a statewide Behavioral Health and Recovery Summit that will engage other branches of government, key stakeholders, and county action teams to respond to behavioral health challenges. 

Five (5) Technical Assistance Grant applications were awarded: 1) the Wisconsin Court System to provide a Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) train-the-trainer workshop, and an in-state SIM workshop in La Crosse County; 2) the Maryland Judiciary to create a strategic campaign that identifies initiatives aligned with the Judiciary’s mission and vision; 3) the District of Columbia Courts for a project on the planning, impact, and use of Artificial Intelligence on judicial decision-making and court operations; 4) Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, City Court to improve justice and behavioral health responses to individuals with serious mental illness through a SIM workshop; and 5) the Wyoming Judicial Branch to assist in strengthening security by providing courthouse security assessments for eleven (11) courthouses in the state.

Two (2) Curriculum Adaptation and Training Grants were awarded: 1) the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts to support educational sessions during the 2024 meeting; and 2) the National Association of State Judicial Educators for enhanced audio/visual capabilities and faculty during the 2024 annual meeting.

The next deadline for grant applications is May 1, 2024.

Last week, our Executive Director, Jonathan Mattiello, our Senior Program Advisor, Michelle White, and members of the SJI Board took a trip to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, (NCJFCJ) in Reno, Nevada. Pictured with Joey Orduña Hastings, Chief Executive Officer of NCJFCJ, and Bill DeLisio, Deputy Executive Officer, NCJFCJ.

The FY 2024 2nd Quarter SJI Board meeting was held on April 8th, 2024, at the Nevada Supreme Court in Carson City, Nevada. Executive Director, Jonathan Mattiello, and members of the SJI Board were joined by Justice Lidia S. Stiglich of the Nevada Supreme Court.

Courts seeking guidance on artificial intelligence (AI) now have access to two new resources, thanks to the AI Rapid Response Team (RRT).

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC)’s Getting Started and Platform Considerations resources provide practical interim guidance for courts on experimenting with AI tools, understanding how AI technologies use data, and evaluating contractual terms and conditions.

“This new guidance enables courts to confidently take some initial steps in experimenting with AI technologies to understand their potential moving forward,” said Shay Cleary, an NCSC Court Consulting Services managing director and AI RRT staff lead. “This guidance puts courts in the right direction.”

The AI RRT is a joint project of NCSC, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ), and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA).

Visit the AI RRT resource center to read the interim guidance and for current information and resources for both state and federal courts.

In a newly released report, Hybrid Hearings Improvement Initiative, NCSC, shares examples of how courts expanded pre-pandemic virtual and hybrid proceedings or quickly adopted new technology and practices to accommodate new ways of doing business. The report notes that courts are now using remote and hybrid hearings throughout all 50 states in differing degrees for both civil and criminal case types. By definition, a hybrid hearing is one in which at least one participant is attending from the courtroom using the room’s audio/video infrastructure and at least one participant is attending remotely either via videoconferencing platform or phone, using audio, video, or both.

“The Hybrid Hearings Improvement Initiative was a natural extension of NCSC’s work during the pandemic,” said Lindsay Hafford, NCSC project director and principal court management consultant. “Connecting technology partners directly with courts provided an invaluable exchange for all participants as they worked toward the common goal of system improvement.”

The initiative reached courts in 28 states, two territories, and one tribal jurisdiction. The five technology partners — Cisco, Logitech, Speech 2 Data, televic, and Zoom for Government — supported the project with hardware, software, funding, and training.

The report features examples from 14 courts that demonstrate how funding; technology; facilities; staffing; and processes, procedures, and policies are all key to hybrid hearings’ success. Additionally, NCSC offers related resources, strategies, best practices, and guidance for successful virtual and hybrid hearings.

For more information and to read the full report, please visit: Hybrid Hearings Improvement Initiative | NCSC.

SJI has just released the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request. To read more, download now:

Establishing robust youth defense systems ensures that youth defenders have the right resources to fulfill the constitutional promise of counsel and in so doing, fight for a transformed system under a collective vision of freeing all youth from systemic injustices.