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June 2009 Vol. 1

-SJI New

9, No. 9 

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SJI BOARD AWARDS GRANTS FOR THE 3rd

 QUARTER 

On June 26, 2009, the SJI Board of Directors met to award grants for the 3rd quarter of FY 2009. A total of 

$328,964 in new grants was awarded, including a new Strategic Initiatives Grants (SIG) project. Awarded 

grants included a Project Grant to the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to develop a Court Leadership 

Academy for court executives that will provide intensive education to improve their capacity to provide 

leadership in their courts. Another awarded Project Grant to NCSC will update the Conference of State Court 

Administrators (COSCA) time standards; which have not been reviewed or updated since they were adopted in 

1982. NCSC will work closely with other organizations on this project, including the National Conference of 

State Trial Judges (NCSTJ) within the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association, the National Judicial 

College (NJC), the National Association of Court Management (NACM), and the Institute for the Advancement 

of the American Legal System (IAALS). 

Six (6) Technical Assistance (TA) applications were awarded, including a judicial resource/mentoring project 

for the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts; an assessment of the Fulton County, Georgia, Office of Court 

Administration; the Utah State Courts Self-Help Center Pilot Project; a planning project for the Florida Office 

of the State Courts Administrator; an assessment of timely disposition of domestic relations cases in Snohomish 

County, Washington; and a workload study for the Oregon Court of Appeals. 

SJI also awarded a $30,000 SIG grant to NCSC to focus on state court security at a national impact level. 

Specifically, this SIG project will develop funding strategies for court security by using best practices, and 

improving continuity of operations planning for pandemic incidents. 

New Judicial Education Curriculum on 

Managing Juvenile Sex Offender Cases 2, 3

Inside

Status of FY 2010 Appropriations 2 Special Announcements 3 
STATUS OF FY 2010 APPROPRIATIONS 

On June 18, 2009, the House passed the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Bill (H.R. 

2847), providing appropriations for FY 2010. SJI received its full request of $5,131,000, as proposed in the 

President’s Budget. The Senate CJS Appropriations Subcommittee approved its version of the Bill on June 

24th, and the full Senate Appropriations approved the Bill on June 25th. The Senate mark includes $5,000,000 

for SJI. SJI appreciates the continued support from Congress. These funding levels will enable SJI to support 

more grants to the state courts, in addition to expanding our efforts to address national court issues. SJI will 

provide updates as the FY 2010 appropriations process continues to move forward. 

NEW JUDICIAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM ON 

MANAGING JUVENILE SEX OFFENSE CASES 

     

      

The Center for Effective Public Policy (CEPP) has recently released an innovative curriculum that provides 

practical information to juvenile and family court judges about youth who engage in sexually abusive behavior. 

This curriculum is designed to enhance their day-to-day decision-making in these challenging cases. During the 

past several years, this one day curriculum has been delivered with very positive results at 17 statewide judicial 

education events (i.e., 16 states and the District of Columbia) to approximately 700 judges. The curriculum, 

The Role of Judges in Managing Juvenile Sex Offense Cases: Keys to Informed Decision-Making, was 

developed through a SJI grant in FY 2004 (SJI-04-N-160). Sex offenses committed by youth are frequently 

identified by juvenile and family court judges as among the most challenging cases, though representing only a 

relatively small proportion of all delinquency petitions. These cases are considered particularly challenging by 

judges for a host of reasons, including: 

3⁄4 The complex dynamics associated with juvenile sex offending behavior; 

3⁄4 Questions about differentiating higher from lower risk youth; 

3⁄4 Concerns about adequately and concurrently addressing the needs of victims; 

3⁄4 An often limited continuum of treatment resources at their disposal; 

3⁄4 Dynamics affecting family engagement; and 

3⁄4 Broader system responses that are based on the assumption that these youth mirror adult sex offenders.

(continued on page 3) 

Page 2 E-SJI News – Vol. 19, No. 9
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. 

In most jurisdictions across the nation, juvenile and family court judges are 

afforded considerable discretion and, as such, they are uniquely positioned to 

facilitate appropriate and effective intervention strategies, beginning at the 

early stages of the system and continuing thereafter. Because many advances 

in research and practice relative to juvenile sex offenders have been made 

during the past decade, exposure to and understanding of, this contemporary 

information can prove useful for juvenile and family court judges as they 

preside over these cases. However, in contrast to the expansion of disciplinespecific resources for the professionals responsible for assessment, 

supervision, institutional programming, and community-based treatment, 

specialized educational opportunities and materials about juvenile sex 

offenders that are designed specifically for juvenile judges have remained 

relatively limited. This curriculum is intended to fill this gap in the judicial 

education field. 

The key topics that are covered in this curriculum include the following: 

3⁄4 Differences between juveniles and adults who commit sex offenses; 

3⁄4 Unique considerations for judges at key decision points throughout the 

juvenile and family court process; 

3⁄4 Specialized assessment, treatment, and supervision approaches from 

the perspective of the judiciary; 

3⁄4 Strategies for facilitating family engagement from the bench; 

3⁄4 Local policies and practices that are in place for juvenile sex offenders, 

the victims of these offenses, and their families; and 

3⁄4 Various roles that the judiciary can assume in promoting effective 

juvenile sex offender management efforts. 

The curriculum agenda is designed to facilitate open exchange and discussion 

between participants and the faculty members regarding common challenges 

and creative solutions related to the management of juvenile sex offenders. 

Paper copies of this curriculum have been distributed to judicial educators, 

members of the judiciary, and other interested parties across the United States. 

An electronic version is available on the Center for Sex Offender Management 

(CSOM) website: http://www.csom.org/pubs/juvenile_sex_cases.pdf. 

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS 

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

(4th Quarter, FY 2009). 

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

website in October 2009. 

3⁄4 All SJI forms are available on the website under the following tab: 

http://www.sji.gov/forms.php. 

Page 3 E-SJI News – Vol. 19, No. 9