Category: News And Announcements

Earlier this month, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) released its 2015 Trends in State Courts.  The annual publication highlighted leadership and technology featuring several articles in covering each area.  Featured in the article “Litigant Portals Provide a New Approach to Help Self-Represented Litigants,” by Dr. Thomas Clarke, is mention of an SJI grant (SJI-14-P-041) to the NCSC and the Self-Represented Litigation Network (SRLN).  This Strategic Initiatives Grant (SIG) is enabling the NCSC and the SRLN to develop technical requirements for future court customer service portals for self-represented litigants.  The project also includes assessments of programs and technologies that provide remote services for self-represented litigants.  Included in the evaluation are the court systems in California, Utah, Alaska, Minnesota, and Maryland, as well as a the Orange County, California, Superior Court.  Results from this project will be available later in 2015.

With support from SJI, the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) has just released its latest resource for state courts and communities, Responding to Sex Trafficking in Your Jurisdiction: A Planning Toolkit.  This toolkit offers a step-by-step process to help courts and communities assess their current approaches to human trafficking and prostitution, and develop or enhance a state court-based response.  The materials in the toolkit are based on promising practices identified through both CCI’s demonstration projects, and national training and technical assistance.  For more information, or to request assistance, contact CCI, which offers training and technical assistance to state courts as a member of the SJI-funded Human Trafficking and the State Courts Collaborative.

In May, Judge Gayle Nachtigal received the 2015 Emma C. McKinney Distinguished Citizen award from the Hillsboro, Oregon Chamber of Commerce.  The award is presented every year in honor of the longtime Hillsboro Argus matriarch.  The Argus will make a $500 donation to a nonprofit organization of Judge Nachtigal’s choice.  Judge Nachtigal currently serves as a Senior Circuit Court Judge in Washington County, Oregon.  Her leadership in a range of national organizations, including the American Judges Association, National Center for State Courts’ Court Consulting Advisory Board, and SJI, have made her a sought after voice on issues relevant to the state courts.  Judge Nachtigal has been a member of the SJI Board of Directors since 2010, and serves as the Board’s Secretary.

The House Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Subcommittee on Appropriations marked up the FY 2016 CJS bill on May 14, 2015, which included SJI’s full request totaling $5,121,000 (the same level as FY 2015).  The bill was subsequently approved by the full Appropriations Committee on May 20th, and the House on June 4th.  The Senate CJS Subcommittee marked up the bill on June 10th, and the full Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill on June 11th, both of which also included SJI’s full request.

The SJI Board of Directors met on June 29, 2015, at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Portland to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of fifteen (15) new grants.  The Board awarded a Strategic Initiatives Grant (SIG) to support Phase III of the Human Trafficking and the State Courts Collaborative.  With additional funding, the HT Collaborative will continue to provide resources, training, and technical assistance to the state courts on this critical issue.

Two (2) Project Grants were approved: the Hawaii Judiciary to complete a workload and workflow assessment of Court Operations staff; and, the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts to conduct the statewide Chief Justice’s 2015-2017 Multi-Disciplinary Study Commission.

Eight (8) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were approved, including: assistance to the NCSC to develop a peacemaking model in the state courts; a courthouse design project for the Mohave County Superior Court in Arizona; assistance to the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts for a statewide data repository project; funding to the Missouri Office of the State Courts Administrator to support a collection of best practices in municipal courts; a planning project for the Superior Court of Santa Barbara County, California; assistance to the 11^th Judicial Circuit of Florida for its Miami-Dade Civil Courthouse P3 Effective Solution; and, case management improvement projects for the 15^th Judicial Circuit Magistrate’s Court in Florida and the Appellate Courts of the State of Washington.

Four (4) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) Grants were approved: support to the Virginia Supreme Court to deliver a workshop via distance learning; the 10^thJudicial Circuit of Florida to deliver court communications programming to personnel; and, two grants to the National Judicial College (NJC) for development of two courses, including a web version of Taking the Bench: An Online Course for New Judges, and an advanced water rights course, Established Water Rights, Changing Conditions.

The National Consortium on Racial & Ethnic Fairness in the Courts (NCREFC) will hold its annual conference June 10-13, 2015, in Buffalo, New York. This year, SJI Board member and Chief Judge of the State of New York, Jonathan Lippman, will receive one of their highest honors. Recognized for his long career and a lasting commitment to leading efforts that work to identify and eliminate racial and ethnic bias in the courts of New York, Chief Judge Lippman will accept the award for his ongoing work with the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission. The Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission was established in June 1991 to educate and advise decision makers in the New York Court System on issues impacting both litigants and employees of color; and to implement recommendations developed to address these issues. Presentation of the award will take place Friday, June 12th, by retired Associate Judge Samuel Green, of the New York Appellate Division, Fourth Department. Throughout their time on the bench and before, both became well-acquainted with each other and share a mutual respect. Also honored at the event will be Gail Prudenti, Chief Administrative Judge of the State of New York. The NCREFC is committed to encouraging examination, sharing the collective knowledge, and providing technical assistance to the courts, to ensure racial and ethnic fairness.

The SJI Board of Directors will be meeting on Monday, June 29, 2015 at 1:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine in Portland, Maine. The purpose of this meeting is to consider grant applications for the 3rd quarter of FY 2015, and other business. All portions of this meeting are open to the public.

With support from SJI (SJI-10-N-004), the Wisconsin Justice Initiative, comprised of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Director of State Courts, and the Planning and Policy Advisory Committee (PPAC), recently released findings and recommendations from an assessment conducted by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) on three promising alternatives to incarceration. The report includes a thorough analysis of current initiatives in several counties including, the risk-and-needs pilot project, Assess, Inform, and Measure (AIM); problem-solving courts; and criminal justice collaborating committees. It also details best practices for each of these initiatives and how the Initiative has leveraged local support for breaking with traditional processes to improve the justice system and outcomes for offenders. These improvements are marked by common measurements of success, including increased public safety, reduced recidivism, and reduced costs associated with incarceration.

The partners of the Wisconsin Justice Initiative requested SJI assistance in December 2009. The final report, Effective Justice Strategies in Wisconsin/A Report of Findings and Recommendations, was two years in the making. NCSC visited 15 counties across the state and also surveyed numerous justice system stakeholders to assess the value of a range of strategies developed in Wisconsin to improve public safety. The report provides recommendations on developing a statewide strategy and plan of action for expansion to other counties throughout Wisconsin.

SJI established human trafficking as a Priority Investment Area in FY 2013. This led to the creation of the Human Trafficking and the State Courts Collaborative, consisting of the Center for Public Policy Studies (CPPS); Center for Court Innovation (CCI); National Judicial College (NJC); National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ), Legal Momentum; and the National Council of Family and Juvenile Court Judges (NCJFCJ). The HT Collaborative has been engaged in numerous activities to enhance state court capacity to address the challenge of cases involving human trafficking. State court and/or trial court technical assistance efforts have either been completed or are ongoing in Arizona, California, Georgia, Guam, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Texas, Delaware, Oregon, and North Dakota. Collectively, these efforts, which are tailored to the needs of each court, have involved a great range of services including assessment, planning, program development and implementation, training, and work process improvement.

Educational sessions on a range of topics – such as the forms and dynamics of human trafficking, labor trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation of children, trauma-informed services, and specialty courts and dockets – have been provided by the HT Collaborative for state court systems, trial courts, and justice partners located in Mississippi, Hawaii, Florida, New York, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Delaware, California, and Arizona. Moreover, additional sessions have been conducted for court associations, including the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), the National Association for Court Management (NACM), and NAWJ.

The resource development and publication work of the HT Collaborative has focused on publishing, in cooperation with NACM, hard-copy and electronic versions of an eleven chapter Guide to Addressing Human Trafficking in the State Courts. In addition, the HT Collaborative has completed a series of nine information cards that provide four page summaries of topics examined in greater depth in the HT Guide.

Recently, in an effort led by HT Collaborative member NAWJ, the group completed a Trafficking in Persons – Modern Day Slavery program manual that will be released in April 2015. Finally, the HT Collaborative also publishes a Human Trafficking in the News summary every two weeks.

Over the next year, the HT Collaborative will continue to provide technical assistance, resource development, training, and networking services to state and local courts. In addition, the HT Collaborative will:

• support the National Summit on Human Trafficking and the State Courts hosted by the New York Unified Court System in October 2015;
• address the challenges of increasing gang involvement in labor and sex trafficking;
• continue assessing the intersection between labor and sex trafficking;
• determine how labor-trafficking involved cases might end up in the state courts;
• implement trauma-informed approaches to addressing human trafficking; and
• develop state court approaches for working with non-U.S. citizen trafficking victims, such as unaccompanied immigrant minors, as well as U.S. citizen victims.