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Criminal Courts Technical Assistance Project
Bureau of Justice Assistance
The BJA-funded Criminal Courts Technical Assistance Project (CCTAP) offers a wide range of free and cost-share services to criminal courts and related judicial system agencies. The CCTAP services are provided by senior judicial system practitioners and related professionals and include: - on-site consultation by senior practitioners
- workshops for judges and court and justice agency personnel
- peer-to-peer visits to courts/justice agencies with promising practices
- 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 Joseph Trotter or Caroline Cooper at the CCTAP project office at American University (see contact information below). 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 areas for CCTAP Assistance include: - Caseflow management reviews, including scheduling practices
- Criminal differentiated case management (DCM) processes (for general case processing and/or problem solving dockets)
- Pretrial services
- 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 and departments
- COOP (continuity of operations planning) and pandemic/public health emergency preparedness
- Justice system-community relations; and
- Special focus/problem-solving courts
Special Caseflow Management Initiative
During the next year, a special initiative is being launched to provide state and local courts with technical assistance to develop caseflow management improvement programs designed to reduce case processing delay and promote more efficient use of judicial resources. Special emphasis will be given to developing and/or expanding Differentiated Case Management (DCM) systems and to designing improved case scheduling systems.
Special Initiative to Promote Tribal-State Judicial Coordination
The project will continue its special initiative to promote increased coordination among tribal and state courts regarding issues of mutual concern. Continued assistance will be provided to the New Mexico Tribal-State Judicial Consortium of the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts to support regional meetings of tribal-state judicial system officials. Project services are available to other Tribal and state courts interested in undertaking similar efforts.
Special Pandemic Influenza Supplement
BJA has provided a special supplement to the Criminal Courts Technical Assistance Project (CCTAP) to assist local and state courts in undertaking planning initiatives critical to ensuring that state judicial systems have the ability to maintain the rule of law in any pandemic or public health emergency.
To provide a foundation for court planning in this area, the CCTAP project developed Guidelines for Pandemic Emergency Preparedness Planning: A Road Map for Courts, produced by an eight-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 here.
As a corollary to the Road Map, AU has developed 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 in May 2006. This training package is designed for distribution 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.
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 and training services to state and local courts involved with developing pandemic/public health emergency preparedness plans. Requests for technical assistance or training on this topic will receive priority for CCTAP services.priority for CCTAP services.
Project Contacts
Kim Norris
Bureau of Justice Assistance
202.307.2076
kim.norris@usdoj.gov |
Preeti P. Menon
Bureau of Justice Assistance
202.353.3511
preeti.menon@usdoj.gov |
Joseph Trotter/Caroline Cooper
Justice Programs Office
202.885.2875
justice@american.edu |
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