September 2007

E-SJI 

The Voice of the State Justice Institute 

News

Vol. 17, No. 10

What’s Inside

Teen Courts in Colorado..2 Changes to the Scholarship Program for FY 2008..2 Important Information for New Grant Applications.. 3

SJI BOARD AWARDS FINAL GRANTS FOR FY 2007

The SJI Board of Directors held its final meeting for

the fiscal year on September 21, 2007, in Alexandria,

Virginia. During this meeting, the Board awarded

approximately $400,000 in new grants. These will

fund a wide range of activities, including two grants to

the Vermont Supreme Court to improve court interpreter services and document conversion, weighted

caseloads for probation officers in Colorado, the development of a guide to the D.C. Juvenile Justice System,

and the design and implementation of a court performance measurement system for the Montana courts. 

Grant Applications are Increasing

The total amount awarded (excluding Partnership

Grants) in FY 2007 for Project Grants, Technical

Assistance Grants, Curriculum & Adaptation Training

Grants, and Scholarships was $2.06 million. However,

total grant applications requested (excluding Partnership Grants) for FY 2007 was $3.95 million, an

increase in requests of $1.46 million (58%) over

FY 2006, and $2.73 million (223%) over FY 2005 (see

chart below). 

In FY 2006, Congress directed SJI to require cash

match for its grants. The availability of match funding

from grantees has been amazing. In FY 2005, the

requests for funding included only $392,892 as cash

match, and most of this was for small grant programs.

In comparison, for the FY 2007 applications, there was

over $3.66 million available for cash match, most of

which was for larger project grants. This clearly

demonstrates that Congress’ intent to leverage match

funding to support court projects is working.

TOTAL FUNDING REQUESTED & CASH MATCH INCLUDED

IN SJI GRANT APPLICATIONS:

FY 2005 - 2007
Page 2 E-SJI News - Vol. 17, No.10

At the May 2007 Board of Directors Meeting, a

Technical Assistance grant for the Colorado Office of

the State Court Administrator was awarded to support

the efforts of the National Center for State Courts

(NCSC) in developing performance measures for Colorado’s Teen Courts. Many

Teen Courts are not operated through the

court system; therefore, before SJI

could make an award, the question was

raised as to whether the proposed activities would actually support courtbased programs. In Colorado, there are

9 teen courts associated with municipal

courts, and the proposed project will enable

those courts to develop measures most appropriate for each. The project recently began, and 10 teen

court coordinators have participated so far. NCSC is

now collecting data on the performance measures that

have been identified. It was reported to SJI that

this grant has reinforced the teen court coordinators’ dedication to serving the teen

population and improving their individual courts. Now the coordinators are

working to find a new way to continue

their efforts and maintain communication with each other. They have considered starting a state association of teen

court coordinators. The performance

measures will be distributed to all the teen

courts in Colorado in the near future.

TEEN COURTS IN COLORADO

SJI will be maintaining all five types of grant programs

in FY 2008; Project Grants, Partner Grants, Technical

Assistance Grants, Curriculum Adaptation & Training

Grants, and Scholarships. The new Guideline for

FY 2008 will be published in the Federal Register within the next couple of weeks, and it will contain some

changes to the Scholarship program. Here are some of

the changes for FY 2008:

1) The Board of Directors discussed the importance of

Scholarships during the September 21, 2007, Board

meeting. Specifically, the Board highlighted the continued need and voted to continue the program in

FY 2008, although at a reduced level due to other funding priorities. Therefore, the amount available for

scholarships has been reduced from $250,000 to

$175,000 for FY 2008. 

2) Scholarship funding may not be used for attendance

at annual conferences or meetings. Funds may only be

used for attendance at an educational program designed

specifically for judges and court managers, and that

addresses issues essential to judicial and court administrative personnel. 

3) Scholarship applications will be reviewed on a “first

come/first considered” basis. No longer will an applicant need to wait for the quarter preceding the education program to submit a scholarship application to SJI.

The applications will be reviewed on a quarterly basis,

and we will distribute available funding as evenly as

possible across the fiscal year. However, applicants are

strongly urged to apply as soon as a program has been

identified, since applications may be submitted at any

time. Those received by the first day of the second

month of a fiscal quarter will be reviewed, and awards

will be made by the end of each fiscal quarter. This

means the next due date is November 1, 2007, and

scholarship applications must be received by that

date; it is no longer a mail due date. The remaining

due dates in FY 2008 are February 1, May 1, and

August 1. Please be aware there are new application

forms for this program available on the SJI website. If

you have any questions about this process or the

Scholarship program in general, please contact us.

CHANGES TO THE SCHOLARSHIP

PROGRAM FOR FY 2008
Page 3 E-SJI News - Vol. 17, No.10

SJI News is published by the 

State Justice Institute, 1650 King Street, Suite 600, Alexandria, VA 22314 

(703) 684-6100 Fax: (703) 684-7618 Web site address: http://www.statejustice.org

Editors

Janice Munsterman

Jonathan Mattiello

Design/Layout

Candice Jackson

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

Carlos R. Garza, Esq.

Administrative Judge (Ret.)

Round Rock, TX

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

Van Debrick

Finance Director

The State Justice Institute is a private, nonprofit corporation established by Congress

in 1984 to provide financial support for

projects to improve the quality of justice in

State courts. SJI is governed by a Board of

Directors appointed by the President and

confimed by the Senate.

CONTACT THE STAFF

Please note staff phone extensions changed effective April 1, 2007.

Janice Munsterman, Executive Director

jmunsterman@statejustice.org, Ext. 202

Jonathan Mattiello, Deputy Director

jmattiello@statejustice.org, Ext. 210

Van Debrick, Chief, Finance

vdebrick@statejustice.org, Ext. 203

LaVerne Durham, Program/Finance Manager

ldurham@statejustice.org, Ext. 204

Candice Jackson, Scholarship Coordintor

cjackson@statejustice.org, Ext. 200

Habel Samuel, Systems Manager

hsamuel@statejustice.org, Ext. 205

Ryan Williams, Finance Manager

rwilliams@statejustice.org, Ext. 206

Are you on the E-SJI News e-list? Would you like to be? If, so please send

your name and email address to cjackson@statejustice.org to start receiving

the E-SJI Newsletter. 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR

NEW GRANT APPLICANTS

New grant applicants should be advised that grant funding may not be used for

the primary purpose of purchasing equipment. Only small amounts of funds

may be used for equipment that is essential to the program being implemented. For further information, please refer to Section IV.A.4.e. of the SJI

Guideline regarding equipment purchases. 

In addition, please remember that software or other computer programs developed with SJI grant funds must be made available to all the SJI State Libraries,

and at cost of duplication, to any court that requests copies of the software or

program. Please refer to Section VI.A.11.b. and c. for more information.