Category: News

With grant funding from SJI and technical expertise from the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), the Elements of Judicial Excellence framework was created to support professional development of state trial court judges.  This unique resource identifies three specific elements necessary to achieving judicial excellence and professional growth, including:

• Citizen of the Court Community: Ethics and Integrity; Engagement; and, Well-Being
• Informed and Impartial Decision Maker: Knowledge of the Law and Justice System; Critical Thinking; and, Self-Knowledge and Self-Control
• Leader of the Court Process: Managing the Case and Court Process; Building Respect and Understanding; and, Facilitating Resolution

Based on the Illinois state Circuit Court and associate judges model, the following guiding documents are included in this new resource:

• Elements of Judicial Excellence Framework: The framework and how to use it is detailed in this 39-page document that introduces concepts, provides citations and resources for further reading, and practical application by trail court judges.
• Elements of Judicial Excellence – Final Report: The complete project final report provides an overview of the framework and its development, explains how the framework can be appropriately used, identifies key lessons learned from the project experience, and describes several potential research directions. The report includes a technical appendix on data collection (Appendix A) and, importantly, the Elements of Judicial Excellence framework document (Appendix B).

Elements of Judicial Education combines established needs, best practices, and new insights that judges themselves believe are important to judicial excellence, as well as recommended strategies to support professional growth.

On May 22-25, 2017, the Minnesota Judicial Branch, with support from SJI, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, and the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, hosted a statewide training: Sex Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation 102: Engagement Strategies for Working with Sexually Exploited Children.

Judges from each of Minnesota’s ten judicial districts and one United States District Court judge each selected a team of systems professionals to represent their district in this training, which focused on building an effective systems response to sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of children. In all, 21 judges and 71 systems professionals, including Minnesota Safe Harbor Regional Navigators, community-based advocates, law enforcement, prosecution, victim services, child protection, and probation, participated in this two and a half-day training.

Following the program, a report was prepared, containing a summary of major themes from the training and recommendations for next steps in building an effective systems response to sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of children.

These recommendations include:

• Utilizing the influence of judges on the systems response and in the community;
• Developing a comprehensive response;
• Leveraging existing resources;
• Adhering to the Minnesota Safe Harbor Protocol Guidelines;
• Working towards systems change;
• Ensuring a culturally-responsive systems response; and,
• Incorporating the youth/survivor perspective.

The full report is available online. In addition to the elements above, a report-back on the district-specific multidisciplinary team activities is featured.

An initiative of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), Reimagining Dependence Courts (RDC) launched in 2016 with support from Casey Family Programs and SJI.

RDC released its inaugural eight page Permanency Report providing a snapshot of foster care system. The report details state-by-state data on key foster care and permanency measures, as well as examples of strategies being implemented through the project to reduce court delay in achieving permanency.

The project has already realized results by providing judicial leaders with children and family and outcome data, in addition to the court process measures courts. Some of the measures found in the Permanency Report include the percentage of children in foster care who have been in care for more than 24 months and the percentage of foster children in the state who are waiting for adoption.

In addition to this project and the report, the NCSC also hosts an online resource guide devoted to dependency courts.

Earlier this month, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) announced 24 new and supplemental grant awards from a variety of funders, including the State Justice Institute (SJI).  This support, totaling more than $11 million, will ensure justice and improve outcomes for families and children in courts nationwide.

SJI is pleased to support an initiative on military families in juvenile and family courts. In partnership with the U. S. Department of Defense, this initiative will allow the NCJFCJ to identify and recruit juvenile and family courts in jurisdictions with significant military presence; create an online national resource center; develop a training curriculum for judges, military command, and key stakeholders; and hold a second summit on military families and state courts for continuing and sustaining these efforts.

“The NCJFCJ is ecstatic to continue its partnership with the State Justice Institute to address issues faced by military families in the juvenile and family court system,” said Judge Anthony (Tony) Capizzi, NCJFCJ president. “Military families face unique challenges including long separations from one another as a result of deployments or relocations, chronic pain, traumatic brain injury and mental health including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.  The NCJFCJ looks forward to working with judges to address the needs of military-connected families, with access to resources like counseling and child care services, while being sensitive to the traumas they may have experienced.”

 

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) released its inaugural Permanency Report. The report reveals state-by-state data on key foster care and permanency measures and the examples of strategies being implemented through the Reimagining Dependency Courts project, an effort supported by Case Family Programs. The project focuses on reducing court delay in achieving permanency for children and their families.

Providing judicial leaders with children and family and outcome data, in addition to the court process measures courts are used to seeing, has been a very powerful driver of change at the statewide leadership level and among local trial court judges.

Some of the measures found in the Permanency Report include the percentage of children in foster care who have been in care for more than 24 months and the percentage of foster children in the state who are waiting for adoption. The eight-page report utilizes data from Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) with measures provided by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect and the Children’s Bureau CFSR State Performance Workbook.  While the report acknowledges that this is not the only or exhaustive way of evaluating permanency and progress, it identifies solid benchmarks for consideration.

 

The National Association Court Management (NACM) is hosting its 2018 midyear meeting, February 11-13, 2018, in Orange County, California.  Recently, NACM announced that the midyear meeting, “Bridging the Gap – the Power of Strategic Collaboration,” was closed to new and walk-in registrations.  If you were previously waitlisted, you should know by the end of January whether NACM can make arrangements for your attendance.

However, just because you are unable to attend in-person, does not mean you cannot participate.  With a grant provided by SJI, live-streaming of midyear educational sessions and workshops will be available.  In addition to the live-streaming and workshop broadcasts, there will be archived educational sessions for future viewing.  SJI supports the development of educational content and its free dissemination online because court professionals are often unable to attend the NACM midyear and annual meetings in person.

The midyear meeting will address how strategic collaboration is vital for courts that seek to establish stronger partnerships and a greater sense of connection with the community.  When courts and their partners collaborate, they work productively toward solutions that result in sustainable outcomes that impact public safety and access to justice.

The midyear meeting will provide attendees with training and networking opportunities that will encourage them to consider how collaboration can be used to address systemic issues that intersect with internal and external interests of the judicial branch. The midyear meeting theme highlights the collaborative intersections that exist between the work of the court and the needs of the community by engaging the private sector and other governmental entities, all of which are essential in building a more responsive and forward-thinking model of justice.

The agenda and video streaming will be available throughout the conference.

 

The SJI Board of Directors met on December 4, 2017, at SJI Headquarters in Reston, VA, to make decisions on quarterly grant applications, and awarded a total of nine new grants.

A Strategic Initiatives Grant (SIG) was awarded to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCFJCJ) for an initiative on Military Families in Juvenile and Family courts.  In partnership with the Department of Defense (DOD), the initiative will:

• Establish a project Task Force of Military Committee members and armed services members to guide the initiative.
• Formulate uniform standards for information and resource sharing, with a major emphasis on the development of templates for MOUs between state courts and military posts.
• Identify and recruit juvenile and family courts in jurisdictions with significant military presence to serve as pilot sites.
• Create an online National Resource Center on Military Families in the Juvenile and Family Courts.
• Create documents for state courts/military installations, including template MOUs, bench cards, resource guidelines, and links to services.
• Develop a training curriculum for judges, military command, and key stakeholders on the unique issues of military families.
• Hold a second Summit on Military Families and State Courts for continuing and sustaining these efforts.

A Project Grant was awarded to the National Association for Court Management (NACM) to meet its goals of providing comprehensive educational programs, publications, online forums, and distance learning opportunities to increase the knowledge, skills, and abilities of its members and within the judicial system.  Specifically, the project will support educational sessions for NACM mid-year and annual meetings, including sessions covering all of SJI’s Priority Investment Areas.

Four (4) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were awarded: the King County, Washington, Superior Court for an on-boarding and leadership program; the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts for a case management strategic plan; the Arizona Supreme Court for a Fair Justice for Persons with Mental Illness initiative; and the Florida Office of the State Courts Administrator for an information technology assessment.

Three (3) Curriculum Adaptation and Training (CAT) Grants were awarded: the Michigan Court Administration Association to support statewide Institute for Court Management training programs; the National Association for Women Judges (NAWJ) for an elder issues project; and the Nebraska Judicial Branch for judicial education on sex offender management.

The next deadline for grant applications is February 1, 2018 (FY 2018, 2^nd quarter).

 

During its recent meeting, the SJI Board held a special election for the Chair position and Chief Justice John Minton from Kentucky was elected as Chair.

John D. Minton Jr. is serving his second eight-year term on the Supreme Court of Kentucky and his third four-year term as chief justice.  He is the 2016-2017 president of the Conference of Chief Justices and chair of the National Center for State Courts Board of Directors.  He was appointed to the SJI Board of Directors in 2016.  He was previously in private practice and a judge for the Circuit Court and Court of Appeals.  He holds degrees from Western Kentucky University and the University of Kentucky College of Law.

Former Chair, Chief Justice Chase Rogers, announced her retirement from the bench effective in February, and called for a special election for the SJI Board Chair position. While retiring from the bench, she will continue serving on the Board of Directors.

 

Trends In State Courts is both an annual publication and a website with a “Monthly Trends” feature.

This month, the featured trend was Managing High-Profile Cases, which has been a focus of collaborative grant work between SJI and several key partners, including the National Center for State Courts, Conference of Court Public Information Officers, and the National Judicial College.

A high-profile case is defined in the piece as, “a case that attracts enough media or public attention that the court must or should make significant alterations to ordinary court procedures to manage it.”   This could be because of attachment to a particular issue at the forefront of society, involvement of a celebrity, or some other element of the case that captures the media’s attention.

In the feature, the Managing High-Profile Cases in the 21st Century website is cited as the primary reference tool for all existing work related to these cases, which includes definitions and examples, continuity of operations planning, updated content from Managing Notorious Trials, originally published in 1992 (updated in 1998), media relations, and critical constitutional case law, among other resources.

 

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) recently published Best Practices for Court Privacy Policy Formulation, which includes the updated public access and privacy guidelines from an earlier Conference of State Court Administrators  (COSCA) model (released in 2002).  A proof of concept (POC) report was needed to determine the accuracy of automatically redacted information, which should be generated in conjunction with the revised Model Policy for Electronic Public Access to Court Case Records.  The NCSC collaborated with Computing System Innovations (CSI) and Extract, – private vendors offering automated data-identification tools in their product lines, as well as state and local courts, which provided the records essential to the POC review process.

Some highlights of the report beyond its descriptive methodology, include the following:

• A breakdown of accuracy rates by: Redaction Target, High-level (overall), Data and Document Types;
• Description of the essential components needed for testing within the court case records; and,
• A multi-factor system for determining redacted targets.

Issued in September 2017, the full report titled, “Automated Redaction: Proof of Concept Report,” is available online, through the NCSC Library’s eCollection.  Also included among the list of COSCA resources, this report, reaffirms the connection to content and methodology when reviewing for accuracy across redacted records.