The SJI Board of Directors will be meeting on Monday, April 17, 2023 at 10:00 AM ET. The purpose of this meeting is to consider grant applications for the 2nd quarter of FY 2023, and other business.
ADDRESS: SJI Headquarters, 12700 Fair Lakes Circle, Suite 340, Fairfax, Virginia.
Register now! As part of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) Redesigning Legal Speaker Series, on March 21st, 2023, at 1:00PM EST, IAALS and its partners will examine the various legal service providers beyond lawyers who help people with their legal problems and discuss why it will take this entire ecosystem to fully tackle the access to justice crisis. Allied legal professional programs are spreading across the country. Register here.
Research shows rural Americans are more likely than urban residents to be jailed, to overdose, and lack access to substance use treatment, mental health care, and public health services. That’s why it’s so important to identify innovative solutions to address justice inequality in rural communities. The Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center, in partnership with the National Center for State Courts, and Rulo Strategies, LLC, authored the Rural Justice Innovations publication to highlight the inaugural group of nineteen Rural Justice Innovation sites selected by the Rural Justice Collaborative (RJC). The innovation sites profiled in this report represent the best of the best. These locations have proven rural justice programs that increase access to justice, improve family outcomes, and reduce reoffending rates. Most importantly, these programs are replicable in other rural communities that face similar challenges in ensuring equitable justice.
The RJC, a group of the country’s most innovative rural justice system leaders, is working to identify best practices that rural communities can replicate. By forming a group of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, treatment providers, and more, the RJC pioneers a new model centered on rural leaders developing solutions to rural problems not by focusing on what a barrier in their communities, but on what is working. The RJC is supported with funding from the State Justice Institute.
Access the publication here: https://www.sji.gov/wp-content/uploads/Rural-Justice-Innovations.pdf
The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is pleased to release a set of audiobooks from the Child Victims and Witnesses Support Materials series for young survivors of human trafficking.
Originally released as graphic novels in January 2022, these three audiobooks were created by national experts and young trafficking survivors—who also served as the voice actors—to support youth who are victims or witnesses in cases of human trafficking.
Listen to the audiobooks here: Audiobooks Available to Help Young Survivors of Human Trafficking | Office for Victims of Crime (ojp.gov)
Pew Charitable Trusts has just released a new article on equitable processes for handling debt collection cases. As levels of consumer debt continue to rise and state civil courts attempt to implement new technologies enacted during the pandemic, court leaders and administrators have a historic opportunity to address the growing need to change how they handle debt collection lawsuits.
To read the full article from Pew, please visit: State Leaders Seek More Equitable Processes for Handling Debt Collection Cases | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)
What data can help the public and court community better understand how state courts are organized and structured? Is there confusion about funding or jurisdictional reach? Or maybe the misunderstandings stem from operational considerations?
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is kicking off a new, three-year Census of State Courts project.
Funded by a $584,762 grant award from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the census will build on NCSC’s State Court Organization data to provide a comprehensive list of U.S. courts that includes detailed information about staffing, operations, and jurisdictional reach.
NCSC will partner with the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) and National Association for Court Management (NACM) to identify priorities for data collection that will enhance knowledge about state courts around the country. Data collected from the courts will be verified, cleaned, and analyzed before census results are made available to the public.
For more information, please visit: State Court Organization (ncsc.org)
The Judicial Innovation Fellowship (JIF) is an initiative incubated at the Justice Lab at Georgetown Law Center’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy. The JIF is a year-long fellowship for technologists, designers, and user testers to transform justice across state, local, territorial, and tribal courts. It is an exciting new opportunity for technologists, product people, and designers to use their talents for justice. Partnering with state, local, territorial, and tribal courts, fellows will have the opportunity to work inside courts to improve how people access justice. Courts gain a unique opportunity to improve operations and equity by receiving a Judicial Innovation Fellow. Having a dedicated fellow to focus on access-to-justice projects frees up staff time and resources and provides a new perspective to help solve problems faced by the court and the public. Projects will leverage skills in backend architecture, front-end design, product development, and user testing. All of which will change the justice system to be more transparent, efficient, and equitable. To learn more, check out the website and sign up for the information session on February 28. Applications open the same day. The Justice Lab is preparing to pick its first cohort of fellows, who will start in September 2023. The Justice Lab will release webinars for courts and potential fellows to learn more about the program and ask questions. To read more about the program, read the Roadmap.
The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is seeking applications to respond to illicit substance use and misuse to reduce overdose deaths, promote public safety, and support access to treatment and recovery services in the criminal justice system. Awards will be made in two categories for the following amounts:
Applications from State Administering Agencies (SAA) responsible for directing criminal justice planning, the State Alcohol and Substance Use Agency, or other state agencies appropriate for the scope of the project; in addition, they must apply for funding on behalf of at least six localities, tribal entities, or areas within the state and assist with implementing projects at those sites.: up to $7,000,000
Period of performance start date: October 1, 2023
Period of performance duration: 36 months
Grants.gov Deadline: March 21, 2023, 8:59 p.m., ET
Application JustGrants Deadline: March 28, 2023, 8:59 p.m., ET
In FY 2023, applications must be submitted in a two-step process:
Step 1: Applicants will submit an SF-424 and an SF-LLL in Grants.gov at https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/register.html.
Step 2: Applicants will submit the full application, including attachments, in JustGrants at JustGrants.usdoj.gov. To be considered timely, the full application must be submitted to JustGrants by the JustGrants application deadline. Visit https://bja.ojp.gov/funding/opportunities/o-bja-2023-171527 for solicitation information, eligibility details, and application guidelines.
The RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice is pleased to announce the release of Keys to Youth Justice Improvement: Demonstration of Practical, Sustainable, Measurable, and Replicable Solutions.
The new Innovation Brief highlights the replicable processes and achievements of the Dennis M. Mondoro Probation and Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Project* (Mondoro Project). The findings illustrate how other state and local jurisdictions are enabled to replicate reforms that establish evidence-informed policies, practices, and stakeholder collaborations to produce positive, sustainable, and measurable outcomes tailored to a jurisdiction’s youth justice system.
Access here: Innovation-Brief-Keys-to-Youth-Justice-Improvement-RFKNRCJJ.pdf
NCSC is now accepting applications for the Eviction Diversion Initiative Grant Program through Friday, April 21. Grants will be awarded to 6-9 state and local courts to launch or expand eviction diversion programs and transform the eviction court experience. EDI grant funds can be used to hire dedicated court staff to oversee the eviction diversion and court reform work and to build community partnerships. Participating courts will also join a national network of courts at the forefront of this work and have access to intensive technical assistance and ongoing support from NCSC staff and program partners as they design, implement, and evaluate their programs.
Two informational webinars about the grant program have been scheduled for Monday, February 13 (Register here) and Wednesday, March 15 (Register here). The webinars will also be recorded and posted to ncsc.org/eviction. Questions about the grant program and application process should be submitted to EDI@ncsc.org. Grant applications are due by Friday, April 21.
