Last summer, the Supreme Court awarded monies from its Court Reform Grant Program for five study projects to courts in the following counties: Allen, Clark, Fountain and Warren, Hamilton, and Marion, plus one grant for an implementation project in Elkhart County. The purpose of the grant program is to encourage courts to streamline court operations and improving efficiency. Under this ongoing program, funds are available for at least five new study grants of up to $30,000.00 each in 2009. Grants of up to $40,000 each will be available for implementation of the study recommendations.
For the upcoming grant cycle, the Supreme Court will give strong consideration to projects in the following areas:
- the study or implementation of performance measures using the National Center for State Courts’ CourTools;
- digital court reporting;
- unified administration and budgeting on either a county or district level; and,
- cross-county programs.
Projects funded in 2008 are illustrative of the types of projects that may receive priority consideration. Marion County is well underway in its study of the use of CourTools and how it might be integrated with Odyssey. In February, Glenn Lawrence, Marion County Court Administrator, and others involved in the project demonstrated their progress to State Court Administration and JTAC staff. They are studying, and have partially implemented, programming to adopt in their county the CourTools performance measures relating to Clearance Rate, Time to Disposition, and Age of Active Pending Caseload. Marion County has created tools for use with their case management systems that are adaptable with other systems in other Indiana counties.
The Allen County courts have engaged the services of Ingo Keilitz from the National Center for State Courts to assist Court Administrators Jerry Noble and Tim Miller in putting together an action plan to study how CourTools might be employed in their county.
Clark County has also hired a consultant from the National Center for States Courts to study two main issues:
- the feasibility of unifying the probation services in Clark County; and,
- whether the four courts and two magistrates should create a court administrator position to assume responsibility for core functions, such as case management, budget and finance, human resources, planning and evaluation, and program coordination.
Fountain Circuit Court Judge Susan Orr Henderson and Warren Circuit Court Judge John Rader, working with the Indiana Judicial Center, are studying the feasibility of a Fountain/Warren County Joint Drug Court. They have been examining how other states deal with multi-jurisdictional issues and have visited established drug courts in Indiana to determine how a joint drug court would be structured in our state.
Hamilton County courts have a project that is well underway working with the Justice Management Institute developing a baseline for the current flow of criminal cases. They are identifying system strengths and weaknesses and recommending ways to improve criminal case processing and reducing jail overcrowding.
Elkhart Superior Court 1 has purchased and installed computer-assisted transcription software and modern court reporting equipment that is expected to reduce transcript turnaround time.
For those courts interested in applying for grants to be awarded in 2009, a completed grant application must be submitted by June 1st. The Application for 2009 Court Reform Grants is posted on the Supreme Court’s website at courts.in.gov/admin/reform/grant.pdf.
For information about applying for a Court Reform Grant this year, contact Jim Walker, Director of Trial Court Management, at [email protected].