Effective December 2003, American University has reinstituted its BJA-funded Criminal Courts Technical Assistance Project (CCTAP), to serve criminal courts and related judicial system agencies. The CCTAP offers a range of free and cost-share services, including: on-site consultation by senior practitioners; workshops for judges and court and justice agency personnel; and office-based assistance, including off-site review of documents/plans by consultants and staff and dissemination of publications.
Technical assistance services can be requested by letter or fax to Project Director Joseph Trotter at the CCTAP project office at American University. The letter should describe the services requested and the needs generating the technical assistance request. Summary background information relevant to the technical assistance requested, including any prior studies undertaken, should also be included. Within five days of receipt of the request, project staff will then contact the requestor to discuss the request in more detail, obtain additional information, if needed, and plan for service delivery. If on-site services are indicated, they will be designed and scheduled in collaboration with the requesting official.
Representative subject areas for CCTAP Assistance include: Case Management Reviews; Development of Criminal Differentiated Case Management (DCM) processes; Pretrial Services; Addressing Jail Overcrowding; Prosecution Office Management; Indigent Defense Services Delivery; Handling Juveniles in Adult Court; Court Facility Planning and Renovation; Operational and Management Reviews of Courts and Justice System Agencies; Justice System-Community Relations; and Special Focus/Problem-Solving Courts.
Special Pandemic Influenza Supplement
American University has received a supplemental award to its BJA Criminal Courts Technical Assistance Project (CCTAP) that will be used solely to assist local and state courts in undertaking planning and implementation processes critical in ensuring that the state judicial systems have the ability to maintain the rule of law in any pandemic emergency situation. This special initiative will extend through calendar year 2007.
The special initiative component of the CCTAP project has three elements:
(1) An intensive, 2-month effort, completed in August 2006, to develop a guide for courts in developing and implementing a pandemic influenza preparedness plan. This publication, entitled Guidelines for Pandemic Emergency Preparedness Planning: A Road Map for Courts, was produced by an 8-member, multidisciplinary Task Force representing expertise in the areas of judicial processes, public health administration, law enforcement, and judicial system-public health system coordination. The Road Map was published by BJA in March 2007 and is available at: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/pandemic/pandemic_main.html and www.american.edu/justice/influenza.php.
As a corollary to the Road Map, AU is developing a multi-media presentation on pandemic emergency preparedness based on the Guide and incorporating materials prepared by various contributors to the BJA-sponsored Symposium on Justice System Preparedness for Pandemic Emergencies, held in Chicago last Spring. This training package will be distributed to Judicial Education offices in each of the state court systems and to State Administrative Agencies for use in their respective in-state training activities. A single national or two regional “train the trainers” programs will be conducted for one representative of each SAA and State Judicial Education Office concurrent with the dissemination of this training package.
(2) Technical Assistance: Using multi-disciplinary consultants drawn from the public administration and public health communities identified in the course of preparing for the BJA national symposium (see “National Technical Assistance and Training Project”) and the Task Force activity mentioned above, the CCTAP is providing technical assistance to state and local courts already undertaking or imminently involved in undertaking pandemic preparedness planning. With publication of the Task Force’s Road Map, this TA will be extended to provide assistance to jurisdictions that wish to receive start-up assistance with implementation of the Guide. In carrying out the technical assistance component of this special initiative, the CCTAP will utilize all of the technical assistance delivery modalities currently used by CCTAP, including, but not limited to: on-site consultant services, hosted site visits, production and dissemination of resource documents, organization and conduct of focus groups, planning and conduct of state and regional training workshops, and defrayment of travel expenses and other support for project-provided faculty at national and state BJA-supported training programs and symposia related to pandemic preparedness.
(3) Partnership with the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) in recognition of the nexus of courts and county sheriffs’ departments in achieving enforcement of court orders and in court security matters. The expertise of this national constituent organization’s staff and its access to the national network of county sheriffs’ offices makes it an essential partner in carrying out this courts pandemic preparedness initiative. In conducting the project, AU and NSA will coordinate closely with the law enforcement, corrections, and state courts COOP planning TA efforts that are contemplated in BJA’s comprehensive “justice system response to pandemics” support plan.
AU also will work with the National Center for State Courts to develop a pandemic preparedness “supplement” to the COOP planning guide that will be developed by the National Center for State Courts with BJA funding during the 12-month time period within which AU’s special initiative will be undertaken. For further information on justice system pandemic preparedness activities underway, see also “pandemic preparedness” activities being conducted under the “National Technical Assistance and Training Project”.
For further information, contact:
Kim Norris, Senior Policy Advisor
Bureau of Justice Assistance
U.S. Department of Justice
810 Seventh Street N.W.
Washington D.C. 20531
Tel: (202) 514-1473
Email: Kim.Norris@usdoj.gov
Preeti Menon, Policy Advisor for Adjudication
Bureau of Justice Assistance
U.S. Department of Justice
810 Seventh Street N.W.
Washington D.C. 20531
Tel: (202) 353-3511
Email: Preeti.Menon@usdoj.gov
Joseph A. Trotter, Jr. or Caroline S. Cooper
Justice Programs Office, School of Public Affairs
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., Brandywine, Suite 100
Washington D.C. 20016-8159
Tel: (202) 885-2875
Fax: (202) 885-2885
Email: justice@american.edu
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