With support from the State Justice Institute, the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute is partnering with Fort Bend County and Brazoria County in Texas to advance The First 48 Initiative: Developing a Blueprint for Person-Centered and Care-Focused Adjudication.
This initiative focuses on connecting people to community-based care early, thereby reducing unnecessary incarceration for people with behavioral health (BH) needs. First 48 centers on the critical window of the first 48 hours after arrest, when decisions about detention are made and when people can be linked to care in lieu of incarceration.
Centered on this critical window and grounded in the research on the harmful impact of incarceration for people BH needs, First 48 focuses on building diversion options that return people with BH needs to the community and connects them to services post-arrest. In Fort Bend and Brazoria counties, local leaders, courts, hospitals, BH providers, and other stakeholders are collaborating to offer post-arrest diversion pathways by centering person-centered, care-focused adjudication. To support this system redesign, both counties are establishing Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils, which provide structure for data-informed planning, cross-system collaboration, and developing shared goals.
In Fort Bend County, the initiative emphasizes early identification of BH needs, legal advocacy at initial court appearances, and increased releases from jail. Brazoria County is focused on developing a crisis services facility and expanding post-arrest diversion options.
This work gives both counties a clearer path for increasing jail releases while connecting people to community-based care and offers a model for other communities.
May 1, 2026
IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, with support from the State Justice Institute, in partnership with the Berkeley Judicial Institute, convened Advancing Innovation: A National Summit on Judicial Leadership and developed a complementary national webinar series—together equipping judicial leaders with the knowledge, skills, and collaborative …
April 1, 2026
The Document Assembly Line, created by the Legal Innovation and Technology Lab (LIT Lab) at Suffolk University Law School, helps individuals build open-source access-to-justice tools and resources for court forms, online guided interviews, and e-filing. It provides affordable Docassemble hosting and e-filing tools for courts and legal aid organizations. The LIT Lab has also created …
March 1, 2026
The Supreme Court of New Mexico, with generous assistance from SJI, has convened a committee dedicated to the development of an alternative, supervised-practice means of licensure that focuses on a skills-based assessment of a bar applicant’s legal abilities. The National Center for State Courts, as contractor on the project, assisted the committee by gathering information …
February 1, 2026
The National Open Court Data Standards (NODS) consists of business and technical court data standards designed to facilitate the sharing of court data, ensure consistency in how data are understood and used, and reduce the costs and efforts required for courts to respond to data requests. In addition, several states are using NODS as a …
January 1, 2026
The Arizona Supreme Court implemented the Arizona Lawyer Apprentice Program (ALAP) on September 1, 2024, with generous grant support from the State Justice Institute, creating an alternative pathway to law licensure. ALAP is designed for candidates who narrowly miss Arizona’s Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) passing score of 270, recognizing that a single cut score does …
December 1, 2025
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), with funding from the State Justice Institute (SJI), launched a national initiative to strengthen state courts readiness for cyberattacks and technical disruptions through Cybersecurity and Disaster Recovery Workshops. These regional sessions (first virtual and then in-person) bring together judges, administrators, IT leaders, and communications staff to enhance preparedness, …