Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard delivered his 22nd address to a joint session of the Indiana General Assembly on January 14, 2009. He delivered his first State of the Judiciary in 1988. What follows is an excerpted version. The full version is available on the Indiana Courts website at courts.IN.gov/supreme/state_jud.html.
There was a time when people in the judiciary viewed their task in terms of the rulings—guilty/not guilty, sustained or overruled. Judges listened to the evidence and considered the law, and then ruled. A courtroom was a place of relative detachment.
But what courts do is intimately connected to society. When the inevitable disputes of life arise, people rely on courts to resolve disputes quickly and cheaply, providing confidence that laws are enforced, on some reasonable timetable, at some reasonable expense. Just as trust in the mechanics of finance empowers the economy, effective and reliable courts are a key part of what keeps America going. Indiana’s courts are doing our part to contribute toward the recovery.
The Pressure on Families
A bad economy puts pressures on families—many times in ways that affect children. This development emphasizes how important it was for the General Assembly to reorganize Indiana’s effort to protect children. The decision to transfer the cost of caring for these children from the counties to the state was partly a matter of property tax relief, but it also gave Indiana the chance to create a safety net for children that is better staffed, better coordinated, and more purposeful than ever. The executive and judicial branches have acted with remarkable cooperation and urgency to make ready for this opportunity, training hundreds of court and Department of Child Services (DCS) staff. House Bill 1001 was the single largest financial commitment to the needs of troubled children in state history. We are determined it will make a difference in their lives.
Wrapped inside this initiative is a story about efficient government. Among the new features is the electronic exchange of case information between juvenile probation officers, the courts, and DCS caseworkers. Our trial court technology staff, led by Mary DePrez, quickly constructed the computer technology to make this happen, in-house, without General Fund money. This effort saved time and money, but it will also get services and placement for troubled children more quickly and effectively. And it will allow Indiana to maximize the amount of federal reimbursement for providing services to children instead of failing to collect millions of dollars in federal reimbursements.
With abuse and neglect rising, it is more urgent than ever that we provide threatened children with a guardian ad litem or a court appointed special advocate who speak up for children. They are often the only point of stability in a child’s world. The General Assembly recently enacted Governor Daniels’ proposal that all abused and neglected children have an advocate. Indiana does this by recruiting community volunteers, and thousands have volunteered. You gave us the money to recruit and train an even larger corps of volunteers. Last year new volunteers signed up at record levels—up 50% in one year, thanks in part to a cadre from the Indiana Retired Teachers Association.
Some of the family stress that creates more cases of abuse manifests itself as domestic violence. We have created an electronic system in 72 counties that notifies law enforcement as soon as a domestic violence protective order is issued. It is a line of defense which we have financed with federal funds that is literally saving lives. Building better protection against domestic violence is not something you postpone in hard times; it’s something you race to accomplish.
You can certainly see hard times in a criminal court. The defendants run the gamut from hardened felons to people who commit a misdemeanor. Most fall in between and most serve their time on probation or in community corrections. We have to be as smart as possible at matching sanctions to fit the offense and the offender. We are trying to do this in multiple ways.
We have strengthened local correctional programs. We created new drug courts last year bringing the total to 29. Independent research show they produce a lower re-offense rate, and produce a better employment rate for offenders, all at lower expense than more traditional penalties. We began two new drug and alcohol programs, and three new re-entry courts for returning offenders. We are at work on a new risk assessment system that will help us sort out the errant sheep from the truly dangerous.
The Foreclosure Crisis
Indiana’s courts and lawyers have created a system—now emulated elsewhere—to support attorneys who are willing to volunteer to help needy citizens with civil legal problems. In addition to these pro bono lawyers, Indiana has over a thousand certified mediators who help people resolve disputes on their own and avoid the time and cost of trial.
We believe these lawyers and mediators and judges can help with the growing challenge of mortgage foreclosure, which has risen 50% in five years in Indiana. Law and policy on these subjects is made by lawmakers, but courts must be adroit in handling individual cases.
Sorting out when loan modification may be feasible and whether there’s a way that people may manage to stay in their homes and doing that as promptly as possible, takes knowledge, skill, and commitment.
Indiana’s effort on the foreclosure problem is being led by Lieutenant Governor Skillman. She and the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority have created the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network. The judicial branch is joining this campaign. I promise you this: by summer Indiana will have trained more judges and pro bono lawyers and mediators to help people facing foreclosure than any other court system in America.
Internal Cost-Savings
I want you to know we will manage our own work in ways that contribute to balancing the budget. Like the executive branch and the legislature, we froze our judicial pay and our staff’s. But, we are engaged in helping the state’s finances in other ways.
Our year-old new electronic traffic citation system is in place. Gone are handwritten traffic tickets; the offender’s license and registration are scanned instead, and a legible ticket printed. Gone too is the time needed to enter and re-enter the information generated by Indiana’s 600 law enforcement agencies. The State Police and 57 other agencies are now using this system, saving time and money wherever we deploy it.
Second, we have achieved universal use of our system to enable Indiana’s courts to send information about traffic cases to the BMV electronically, saving thousands of dollars in paper and data re-entry. And, this achievement will protect some $34 million in federal highway funds.
Third, on the revenue side, how much the State can collect in delinquent tax—and how quickly the collections come in—depends in part on how promptly the Department of Revenue can process tax warrants through the trial courts. We worked with the Department of Revenue to construct computer technology that sends tax warrant information electronically to county clerks—for free.
Planning for Tomorrow
Moments like the present, when great leaps forward are not in the cards, are a good occasion to map out the future. The Judicial Conference of Indiana, which consists of judges elected by their peers, has spent the last months planning for the future of our courts. A Board committee led by Judge Terry Shewmaker of Elkhart and Judge Mark Stoner of Indianapolis has issued a working document, now under discussion, that focuses on upgrading judicial and staff education, on building collaboration among judges in counties and between counties, on accelerating state support for trial court operation, and on sorting out the multiple selection systems by which Indiana chooses judges. We believe the end product will be a blueprint for an even stronger court system.
An Anniversary that Prompts Hope
Governor Daniels quoted Abraham Lincoln recently. The judiciary will also observe the two hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. He was many things and perhaps was Indiana’s greatest contribution to American history.
He was also a first-rate lawyer and an energetic public citizen. And so, on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12th, with the help of teachers, the State Bar, local bars, and others, hundreds of judges and lawyers will go to Indiana’s classrooms to talk with students about Lincoln the President, Lincoln the lawyer, Lincoln the citizen, and about the kind of engaged citizens we want those students to become.
In the midst of so much gloom, this will be a message that conveys hope about the future of our nation and our state.