Category: News And Announcements

Difficult Conversations Webinar Series Recording

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), with support from SJI, hosted a series of five webinars titled Opioids and the Courts- Difficult Conversations. NCJFCJ and expert faculty explored challenges associated with referring children and families to services in dependency and delinquency cases. The faculty and webinar attendees had the opportunity to discuss how courts and services providers can work together to meet the needs of families and improve their lives. Recordings of this webinar series and links to related resources can be found on the NCJFCJ website.

In addition to the webinar series, the NCJFCJ provided training and technical assistance to juvenile and family courts across the country to address the effects of opioid use disorders (OUDs) and other substance use disorders (SUDs) on children and families.  

The project involved recruiting judicially-led court sites to engage in Targeted Resource Mapping to document the continuum of services available for children and families affected by OUDs and other SUDs. The project had two primary, interrelated goals for the sites to 1) gain knowledge of existing services on a local level; and 2) identify and address service gaps in an effort to ensure a healthy and effective continuum of services.

As a result of that work, the NCJFCJ developed the Targeted Resource Mapping Toolkit (Mapping Toolkit). The Mapping Toolkit includes templates to develop a Targeted Resource Map (resource map), Targeted Resource Directory (resource directory), and Targeted Resource Mapping Action Plan (action plan).

The Mapping Toolkit is intended to encourage and provide guidance to courts that are seeking to better understand existing resources, identify and address service gaps, and build relationships with providers in their community. 

Click here to learn more about the Lessons Learned in Targeted Resource Mapping.

Funds Available for Mental Health Courts at the Bureau of Justice Assistance

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is now accepting applications for its Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. This year, funding is available through this program to jurisdictions creating or expanding a mental health court.

The grant program seeks to provide support to justice system agencies partnering with mental health agencies to reduce crime and recidivism
associated with people with mental illnesses and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. 
Grants are awarded over a period of 36 months beginning October 1, 2021 and are valued at up to $550,000 per award.

Applicants must meet two deadlines as part of a new two-step application process for all Department of Justice grants: 

•    June 22, 2021: The SF-242 and SF-LLL must be submitted to Grants.gov
•    July 6, 2021: The full application must be submitted to JustGrants

New this year, grant applicants must comply with Executive Order 13929 Safe Policing for Safe Communities. See the grant solicitation for details on complying with the order.

Download the Solicitation

Additional Resources for Applicants

Assistance is available on navigating the Department of Justice’s new JustGrants system, including FAQs, an application submission checklist, and recordings of past virtual Q&A sessions. You can access the full library of training resources here.

For technical assistance with submitting the SF-424 and SF- LLL in Grants.gov, contact the Grants.gov Customer Support Hotline at 800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov. 

For technical assistance with submitting the full application in DOJ’s Justice Grants System (JustGrants), contact the JustGrants Service Desk at 833-872-5175 or JustGrants.Support@usdoj.gov.

The National Center for State Courts has released an evaluation framework for Allied Legal Professional Programs. In response to increases in the number of self-represented litigants, several states have moved forward on plans to create an additional tier of legal service providers, who are authorized to give limited legal assistance at a lower price than attorneys. 

These “allied legal professionals” (ALPs) go by several different names, including Non-lawyer Legal Service Providers, Licensed Paralegal Practitioners, Legal Paraprofessionals, Legal Document Preparers, Limited License Legal Technicians, or Limited License Practitioners.  With a generous grant from the State Justice Institute (SJI-20-P-021), the NCSC has issued a new report that highlights factors that states should consider as they design new ALP programs as well as guidance on designing an evaluation plan to assess their effectiveness. 

The evaluation framework employs a “balanced scorecard” approach to ensure that evaluation measures take into account perspectives of important stakeholders, including courts, ALP clients, and the ALPs themselves.  All of the evaluation measures address the same underlying primary question: to what extent do ALPs improve access to justice?  The report is available here.  The NCSC project team is also available to provide technical assistance to courts designing new ALP programs or planning an evaluation strategy.

On May 10, 2021, the U.S. Department of Treasury released guidance on the State and Local Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Fund (Recovery Fund), which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP). The bill includes $65.1 billion in direct, flexible aid to every county in America, as well as other crucial investments in local communities. 

Additionally, the U.S. Treasury opened the new portal that counties must complete to receive Fiscal Recovery Funds. Since the ARP was signed into law, the National Association of Counties (NACo) has been supporting the U.S. Treasury’s efforts to successfully implement the Recovery Fund.  Included in the guidance is the flexibility to use Recovery Funds to invest in broadband infrastructure, services and programs to contain and mitigate the spread of COVID-19, including capital investments in public facilities, investments in housing and neighborhoods and other guidance counties advocated for.  Courts are encouraged to work with their county and state governments on potential opportunities to access recovery funds. 

Under the recently passed American Rescue Plan, there is a major new infusion of federal funding for AmeriCorps programs, a potential funder of court navigator programs.  Join the Self Represented Litigation Network (SRLN) for a webinar on Friday, 5/21/2021 at 2PM EDT to take a deep dive into seeking AmeriCorps funding for court navigator programs.  A senior AmeriCorps official, joined by several program leaders of court navigator programs who use AmeriCorps funds, will provide an overview and offer useful guidance and handy tips for submitting applications to secure funding.

Register Today:  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1867915633479036172

As a result of COVID-19, Americans rely even more heavily on the Internet and social media to complete everyday tasks than they did before the pandemic. Indeed, courts in several states are piloting remote jury selection and even fully remote trials to resume jury trials safely, raising concerns about the risk of juror misconduct involving new media. With SJI support, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) undertook a study of jurors and new media, including a survey of judges and lawyers about their opinions and experience with incidents of alleged juror misconduct and a review of more than 20 years of case law in which the issue was addressed.

Among the key findings:

• Only one-quarter of judges and lawyers reported having any experience with juror misconduct involving new media in their professional careers, but 41% believe that one or more jurors will use new media inappropriately in any given trial;

• Cases that pose the highest risk of juror misconduct include serious criminal charges, multiday trials, cases involving unfamiliar terms or concepts, trials in which jurors may find information on reputable websites or local news media, and trials in which attorneys know or suspect that prejudicial information exists online;

• Incidents reported in the judge and attorney survey were usually discovered during trial, providing the trial judge with the opportunity to conduct an investigatory hearing and address any prejudicial impact of the misconduct in a timely manner;

• As long as trial judges adequately investigated incidents of alleged juro
misconduct, appellate courts overwhelming affirmed their responses to those incidents;

• Recent case law tends to focus on the extent to which extraneous
information is prejudicial to the parties, reserving the remedy of a mistrial or new trial only for cases in which the information is clearly prejudicial.

A detailed technical report and a brief Research Highlights are available
at https://www.ncsc-jurystudies.org/what-we-do/jurors-and-new-media

The NCSC, with support from SJI, prepared an updated resource for the court community to summarize the current state of the continually maturing science on implicit bias as of March 2021. This report replaces NCSC’s 2012 report, Helping Courts Address Implicit Bias: Resources for Education. The Evolving Science of Implicit Bias: An Updated Resource for the State Court Community defines commonly used terms originating from the science of implicit bias; explains how the concept of implicit bias fits into broader conversations underway across the country about equity and fairness; and summarizes what is currently known from research in the psychological and brain sciences, including implicit bias interventions generally found to be effective and ineffective. This report concludes with some implications of this knowledge for state court leaders and other court practitioners who seek to better understand and address the reproduction and perpetuation of systemic biases through this lens. Preparation of the report was funded by State Justice Institute and NCSC.

In a new briefing on the American Rescue Plan, the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center outlines need-to-know information about how states and local communities can leverage funding to advance criminal justice priorities. Learn more: American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: Guide to Advancing Justice-Related Goals – CSG Justice Center – CSG Justice Center

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) researchers recently have received data from 12 states that show how the pandemic impacted case filings and dispositions in 2020.

The data – the first batch that covers all of 2020 – reveals two noteworthy findings:

• The number of criminal, traffic and juvenile cases is expected to return to normal this year, and no surge in cases is expected; but
• Family and civil case filings are expected to swell this year and may challenge courts, particularly in the areas of debt-collection, eviction and foreclosure.

Although the 12 states are geographically diverse, NCSC researcher Diane Robinson cautioned that the sample size is not large enough to make conclusions about the nation as a whole. Robinson and NCSC researcher Sarah Gibson, who analyzed the data, recently published a paper about the data as well as an interactive dashboard.

“Civil and domestic relations cases are so low in 2020 (compared to 2019) that we strongly suspect that these cases are going to come in (in 2021 or 2022),” said Robinson, who added that they have been labeled “shadow cases.” She said she and others suspect that many people without lawyers assumed that they couldn’t file cases last year, or they didn’t know how to navigate the new environment that required a greater familiarity with technology. The “huge unknown,” she said, is how many of those people will file cases this year because they view courts as having re-opened and because they have become more familiar with technology.

Another unknown is how much of the drop in cases in 2020 was tied to the pandemic and the economic downturn. There may have been fewer civil cases, like slip-and-fall lawsuits, because people were out and about less. There may have been fewer family cases because those tend to drop when the economy is slumping. One other area of concern is dependency or child maltreatment cases. Many cases of child abuse and neglect begin with a call to a child abuse hotline by a mandated reporter. Because many children were not in school last year, they had less contact with adults outside their homes. As more children return to school, the number of child maltreatment reports – and dependency cases filed in the courts – is expected to rise. If and when a surge occurs, Robinson said she expects it will be a gradual increase that will begin this year – if it already hasn’t – and continue into 2022.

“I don’t think the dam is going to break,” she said, “but I think there will be an increase in flow.” The NCSC will continue to ask states this year to provide data that shed more light on how pandemic-related closings have impacted court filings and dispositions, and will report on the findings.

Did the COVID-19 Pandemic impede or stall your juvenile court improvement process? Have you identified opportunities to change practice post-pandemic? Whether you are just starting a new court improvement initiative or need assistance to restart your previous work, NCJFCJ has a unique opportunity to assist your court. 

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), with funding from the State Justice Institute (SJI), is seeking juvenile courts that are interested in participating in the Enhanced Juvenile Justice Guidelines Demonstration Sites Project. If your court is interested in becoming a demonstration site, please click on the link below to complete the application. Applications are due by April 30, 2021.

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What does it mean to be a demonstration site?

The jurisdictions that participate in the Enhanced Juvenile Justice Guidelines Demonstration Sites Project will engage in a two-year process to identify and address issues in adjudicating and delivering services in juvenile delinquency cases. The Enhanced Juvenile Justice Guidelines identify many different areas that courts can consider for improvement including improving timelines for case processing; using risk/need assessment information; reducing the use of fines and fees; implementing alternatives to detention; collaborating with the education system to reduce school pathways to the justice system; identifying and addressing gaps in services, and many more. Jurisdictions who participate in the project will have access to regular assessment of court practice, technical assistance, strategic planning support, expert national training and trainers, and a peer support network. Please note, that while there is no site-specific funding available you will receive all of the support and tools you need to change your court practice.

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Begin Application

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Who should apply?

The project is open to all courts that work with delinquent offenses. Your program should be judicial lead and be prepared to bring together a group of system stakeholders who are committed to changing court practice. A commitment from your lead judge and the approval of your presiding judge is required. Tribal courts are encouraged to apply. 

If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Pearce, Senior Site Manager, NCJFCJ at jpearce@ncjfcj.org or (775) 507-4799.