SJI Newsletter

April 2019 | Volume 29, No. 7

SJI Awards FY 2019

Second Quarter Grants

The SJI Board of Directors met on April 1, 2019 to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and 

awarded a total of 13 new grants.

Nine (9) Technical Assistance Grants were awarded: the Kansas Judicial Branch to improve and 

expand services for self-represented litigants; the Judiciary of Guam for an assessment of Superior 

Court case assignments; the Franklin County, Ohio, Municipal Court for strategic planning; the 

National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) for a digital redesign project; the Montgomery 

County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas for behavioral screening of youth in court schools; the 

National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) for webinars and training on the judicial role in ensuring 

due process rights for youth; the Summit County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas for an adult 

probation improvements project; the Oregon Judicial Department for a reengineering assessment in 

Washington County; and the Colorado Bar Association for an online triage initiative for aging adults.
Four (4) Curriculum Adaptation and Training (CAT) Grants were awarded: NAWJ for educational 

sessions on elder issues; the National Judicial College (NJC) for educational programs on water 

rights law in times of shortage; NJC for digitization of the course titled, Presiding over a Capital Case; 

and the Nebraska Supreme Court for statewide education and collaboration on juvenile justice.

The next deadline for grant applications is May 1, 2019 (FY 2019, 3rd quarter).

Public Engagement Pilot

Initiative Selects Projects

The Public Engagement Pilot Initiative is a joint collaboration of the National Center for State Courts

(NCSC) and the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, with grant support from the State 

Justice Institute (SJI).

After a nationwide call for proposals, six public engagement pilot projects have been selected from 

an exciting and diverse group of proposals. Over approximately 18 months, the pilot projects will 

receive resources and support from the NCSC in partnership with the University of Nebraska Public 

Policy Center. The sites will work both individually and collaboratively to engage their communities, 

with the goal of building trust.

Included in this effort are the following sites:

• Administrative Office of the Massachusetts Trial Court;

• Franklin County, Ohio Municipal Court;

• Kansas City, Missouri Municipal Court;

• Nebraska Supreme Court Office of the State Court Administrator;

• Puerto Rico Judicial Branch; and,

• Texas Office of Court Administration

To benefit all state courts, the Initiative will be developing a toolkit for courts to use in their own 

public engagement efforts. Already developed as working documents are: 1) Visioning Public 

Engagement; and, 2) Appendices A and B, that detail issues identified and examples of public 

engagement. More resources are expected to be added as the pilots move forward in their work.
NCSC Develops Report to

Quantify Automated Redaction Accuracy

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) recently released the Automated Redaction Proof of 

Concept Report, made possible by an SJI grant.

The goal of this 16-page, Proof of Concept (POC) Report, is to quantify the accuracy of automated 

redaction capabilities and share those results with the court community.

The report focuses on the following areas:

• Developing a comprehensive redaction policy;

• Identifying redaction targets;

• Evaluation and Metrics; and,

• POC Trials in multiple court settings.

The report is intended to provide: 1) background about the principles underlying the Revised Model 

Policy; and (2) a description of the categories of protected information included within the scope of 

the POC, the methodology that the NCSC and participating vendors followed during the POC, and, 

most importantly, the impressive results achieved in automated redaction of the data targets.
New England Creates a

Regional Opioid Initiative

The chief justices of the six New England states have launched the New England Regional Judicial 

Opioid Initiative (NE RJOI), the second regional group of its kind. The establishment of the New 

England group, which includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island 

and Vermont, comes at a time when federal, state and local leaders have committed to work together 

to combat the opioid epidemic and to help others recognize the crucial role that the courts play to 

fight this crisis.

The first joint effort, the Appalachia/Midwest Regional Judicial Opioid Initiative, included Illinois, 

Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. It was established 

in 2017 - the same year the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court 

Administrators established the National Judicial Opioid Task Force. The national task force, which 

NCSC staffs, was created to examine current efforts and find solutions to address the opioid 

epidemic.

Like the states in the first regional group, the New England states have experienced some of the 

highest opioid-related overdose death rates ranging from 36 deaths per 100,000 in New Hampshire 

to 18 deaths per 100,000 in Vermont, according to the most recent figures available. The New 

England states also have some of the nation's highest rates of opioid prescriptions per 100 people. 

The rates range from 60 per 100 in Massachusetts to 70 per 100 in Maine.

In support of the NE RJOI, the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance has awarded 

the group $1.5 million. The initiative intends to develop a multi-state approach to the opioid epidemic 

with a focus on the courts. The project will allow states to share best practices, coordinate and 

standardize procedures, and communicate in a more targeted and unified way.
SJI Board of Directors

Chair

John D. Minton, Jr.

Chief Justice

Supreme Court of Kentucky 

Frankfort, KY

Vice Chair

Daniel J. Becker

State Court Administrator (ret.) 

Utah AOC

Salt Lake City, UT

Secretary

Gayle A. Nachtigal

Senior Circuit Court Judge

Washington County Circuit Court 

Hillsboro, OR

Treasurer

David V. Brewer

Justice

Oregon Supreme Court

Salem, OR

Jonathan Lippman

Chief Judge of New York (ret.)

of Counsel

Latham & Watkins, LLP

New York, NY

Chase T. Rogers

Chief Justice (ret.)

Supreme Court of Connecticut

Partner

Pitney Day, LLP

Hartford, CT

Wilfredo Martinez

County Judge

9th Judicial Circuit of Florida

Orlando, FL

Marsha J. Rabiteau

Executive Director

Center for Human Trafficking

Court Solutions

Bloomfield, CT

Hernan D. Vera

Principal

Bird Marella P.C.

Los Angeles, CA

Isabel Framer

President

Language Access Consultants, LLC 

Copley, OH

Jonathan D. Mattiello

Executive Director

The State Justice Institute is a federally-funded, non-profit corporation established by

federal law in 1984 to improve the quality of justice in the state courts.

Products and Resources

Since 2011, SJI has designated the library at the National Center for State Courts as the

official repository of published work related to SJI-supported grant projects. You can

search the ecollection online by using the term, State Justice Institute.

Share the News

SJI uses Facebook and Twitter to promote the work of its grantees and also shares 

information of interest to the entire state court community. If your organization's work 

complements ours, let us know and we will share.