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July 2009 Vol. 1

-SJI New

9, No. 10 

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NEW GRANT TO FOCUS ON COURT SECURITY 

AND CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS PLANNING

  

On June 23, 2009, SJI awarded a Strategic Initiatives Grant (SIG) to the National Center for State Courts 

(NCSC) for a court security and continuity of operations planning project. This project builds off of NCSC’s 

work in identifying the best practices, and steps to achieving those best practices, for court security. 

Specifically, the project will develop a companion piece on funding strategies for state courts to enable them to 

increase court security resources using sound performance data. NCSC will also develop an instructional DVD 

video for state courts so that they can better understand the threat level and ramifications of the H1N1 flu virus. 

In order for state courts to improve their security, needs must be identified, spending guidelines must be 

established, and the associated costs and methods of measuring performance must be determined. Using 

NCSC’s best practices approaches to court security as a foundation, NCSC will develop funding strategies that 

will: 1) identify the costs of courthouse security improvements; 2) emphasize the priorities for spending limited 

funding; 3) develop strategies to build a coalition of stakeholders in order to make effective requests to funding 

sources; and 4) develop performance and accountability measures to be supported by comprehensive incident 

reporting systems. This information will be distributed to every state court administrator, and made available 

on the NCSC website. NCSC will work with a core working group/security advisory committee already in 

place to complete this project. This committee consists of administrators and court security managers 

representing 10 states in all geographic areas of the United States. (continued on page 2) 

SJI/PEW Partner Grant on Evidence-Based 

Practices to Reduce Recidivism 3

Inside

Council for Court Excellence Releases Guide 

to the D.C. Juvenile Justice System 2, 3

Special Announcements 3 
According to the Center for Disease Control, H1N1 is a new flu virus of swine origin that was first detected in 

April 2009. The virus is infecting people at an increasing rate, both domestically and abroad. The state courts 

are generally unprepared to deal with a quick and rampant spread of the H1N1 virus; therefore it is critical that 

they learn how to prepare, in addition to fitting the pandemic response into their existing “all hazards” approach 

to continuity of operations. In order to assist the state courts, NCSC will develop a basic instructional DVD that 

will include a step-by-step process to respond to a pandemic event in their jurisdictions. The DVD will address 

issues such as the probability of an event occurring; the effect of the 1918 – 1919 Spanish flu; what existing 

COOP response plans should contain; how a pandemic event will alter those plans; as well as other sources of 

information. 

As a national impact issue, SJI remains committed to improving state court security. This project, in addition to 

previous Partner Grants with the U.S. Marshals Service that focused on court security, will contribute to the 

ongoing efforts to improve court security across the United States. 

COUNCIL FOR COURT EXCELLENCE RELEASES 

GUIDE TO THE D.C. JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM 

The Council for Court Excellence (CCE) was awarded a SJI grant in FY 2007 for the Guide to the D.C. Juvenile 

Justice System (SJI-07-N-191). The Guide was released on June 29, 2009, and is the first written roadmap for 

the general public on how the District of Columbia’s juvenile justice system operates. The Guide explains how 

a case moves from arrest to discharge, what roles various government and non-governmental agencies and 

individuals play, and what rights victims of juvenile crime have. 

The D.C. Juvenile Justice System is complex in that it involves several different government agencies. By 

statute the system is also confidential; which supports the mission of rehabilitating youth whose actions have 

brought them into the juvenile justice system. However, the nature of this confidentiality has also hindered the 

community’s understanding and confidence in the system as a whole. The purpose of this Guide is to provide 

the community with the information they need in order to understand how juvenile justice works in D.C. The 

Guide will also enable the community to hold the D.C. juvenile justice system accountable. 

Whether the user is a parent, victim, witness, interested resident, or a juvenile involved with the juvenile justice 

system, the Guide is designed to help them understand how that system works. While it is not a substitute for 

the advice of an attorney, it provides useful information on the process from when a youth is first taken into 

custody until there is a final decision on a case. (continued on page 3) 

Page 2 E-SJI News – Vol. 19, No. 10
Board of Directors

Chairman

Robert A. Miller 

Chief Justice (Ret.) 

Supreme Court of South Dakota 

Pierre, SD 

Vice Chairman

Joseph F. Baca 

Chief Justice (Ret.) 

New Mexico Supreme Court 

Santa Fe, NM 

Secretary

Sandra A. O’Connor 

States Attorney of Baltimore 

County (Ret.) 

Towson, MD 

Executive Committee Member

Keith McNamara, Esq. 

McNamara & McNamara 

Columbus, OH 

Terrence B. Adamson, Esq. 

Executive Vice-President 

The National Geographic Society 

Robert N. Baldwin 

Executive Vice President and 

General Counsel 

National Center for State Courts 

Sophia H. Hall 

Administrative Presiding Judge 

Circuit Court of Cook County 

Chicago, IL 

Tommy Jewell 

Presiding Children’s Court Judge 

(Ret.) 

Second Judicial District Court 

Albuquerque, NM 

Arthur A. McGiverin 

Chief Justice (Ret.) 

Supreme Court of Iowa 

Des Moines, IA 

Janice Munsterman 

Executive Director 

Jonathan Mattiello 

Deputy Director 

The State Justice Institute is a 

private, non-profit corporation 

established by Federal law in 1984 

to improve the quality of justice in 

state courts, and foster innovative, 

efficient solutions to common 

issues faced by all courts. SJI is 

governed by a Board of Directors 

appointed by the President and 

confirmed by the Senate. 

The Guide includes sections that deal with an attorney’s responsibility to a 

juvenile client; provide special information for victims and witnesses; and list 

Q&As to common questions. 

Copies of the Guide in English and Spanish are available on CCE’s website: 

http://www.courtexcellence.org/PublicationsNew/Final%20Community%20E

d%20Books.htm

SJI/PEW PARTNER GRANT ON EVIDENCEBASED PRACTICES TO REDUCE RECIDIVISM 

In June 2009, SJI approved a Phase II Partner Grant to continue supporting the 

Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Safety Performance Project. The goal of the 

project is to promote fiscally sound, data-driven policies and practices on 

sentencing and corrections that protect the public safety, hold offenders 

accountable, and control correctional costs. The National Center for State 

Courts (NCSC), the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI), and the National 

Judicial College (NJC) are working together to provide technical assistance, 

education, and training to state courts in this vital area.

During Phase II, NCSC will: 1) continue educating and mobilizing chief 

justices and other state court leaders in support of sentencing and corrections 

reforms that align with the project’s goals and focus. This will help create a 

national visibility and awareness of the need for such reforms; 2) work with 

other sites to provide non-partisan research, analysis, training, and consulting 

services on evidence-based practices to court officials and community 

corrections executives – NCSC will make such information and services 

available to state courts and judges across the United States; 3) coordinate the 

work of a national working group on using risk and needs assessment 

information at sentencing; and 4) finalize and support the delivery of a model 

curriculum for state court judges on evidence-based practices to reduce 

recidivism. 

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS 

3⁄4 Next grant and scholarship application deadline: November 1, 2009 

(1st Quarter, FY 2010). 

3⁄4 The new SJI Grant Guideline for FY 2010 will be available on the SJI 

website in October 2009. 

Page 3 E-SJI News – Vol. 19, No. 10