We have been saving a lot (and I mean “a lot) of interesting items to share in recent weeks. We have news about court data analytics in California, an academic paper questioning the use of arrest data in policy development, a new justice index ranking report for USA courts, a report on Fines and Fees policies, the application of microeconomics for policy development, the NIEM JSON Specification, Version 5.0 release candidate 2, Ohio Court News on sealed records, England and Wales reports on the results of their divorce online system, applying the PDF A-4 standard for permanent digital records, and an excellent Tiny Chat.
---
Via press release: In April 2021, the Florida Supreme Court launched the Virtual Courtroom Directory, a website from which viewers can link to and watch virtual hearings and court livestreams of trials and oral arguments throughout the state.
The directory website is: https://courtrooms.flcourts.org/
The idea for this directory germinated in May 2020, when
Chief Justice Canady read about three states that had successfully developed
live court event websites—Indiana, Michigan, and New Jersey. Immediately, he directed the Office of the
State Courts Administrator (OSCA) to determine whether Florida could construct
something similar. Reaching out to the
court technology officers of those states, Mr. Roosevelt Sawyer, the state
courts technology officer under OSCA, learned about how those websites were
built, how they are updated, how long it took, and how much it cost to develop
these systems, and which videoconferencing platforms they use. Armed with this information, along with other
tips and “lessons learned” that these states generously shared, Mr. Sawyer was
given approval to proceed. In under a
year—with the indispensable support of the supreme court’s deputy director of
public information, Ms Tricia Knox, who took the lead in this effort; the
vendor, who developed the website; and the Florida court technology officers of
the four circuits that participated in the pilot project (the Second, Eleventh,
Fourteenth, and Seventeenth)—he was able to bring the chief justice’s vision to
fruition.
California Judicial Council Approves Data Analytics Strategy
on Use of Branch Data and Information
From a press release on May 21, 2021.
“A court innovations grant awarded to the Orange County Superior Court for its data project was the genesis for the branch wide vision on data analytics. “Trial courts are the incubators of change,” said Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye. “Orange County received a grant and turned it into something that changes the branch and sets an example, nationally."
Council members heard how the past year has accelerated the ongoing need for data due to the pandemic’s effects on court operations and services, such as the:
- Number of courts holding remote proceedings and in which case types
- Number of litigants accessing self-help centers (in-person and remotely)
- Number of filings and dispositions
There is much more detail available in the article.
On the Validity of Arrest as a Proxy for Offense: Race and the Likelihood of Arrest for Violent Crimes
A research report out of Carnegie-Mellon University (PDF) was released that studied “(t)he risk of
re-offense is considered in decision-making at many stages of the criminal
justice system, from pre-trial, to sentencing, to parole. To aid decision-makers in their assessments, institutions increasingly rely on algorithmic risk
assessment instruments (RAIs). These tools assess the likelihood that an
individual will be arrested for a new criminal offense within some time window
following their release. However, since not all crimes result in arrest, RAIs
do not directly assess the risk of re-offense. Furthermore, disparities in the likelihood
of arrest can potentially lead to biases in the resulting risk scores. Several
recent validations of RAIs have therefore focused on arrests for violent
offenses, which are viewed as being more accurate reflections of offending
behavior. In this paper, we investigate biases in violent arrest data by analyzing
racial disparities in the likelihood of arrest for White and Black violent
offenders.”
Editor’s note: congratulation to the authors on examining this statistical approach. In my experience and opinion, the arrest data tells a very small part of the story. What the prosecutor, courts, and subsequent corrective processes can be much more useful.
The National Center for Access to Justice Index 2021
Released
https://ncaj.org/state-rankings/2021/justice-index
They write: “The Justice Index is a snapshot of the degree to which each US state has adopted best practices for ensuring access to justice for all people. NCAJ has identified policies in four key areas-- attorney access, support for self-represented litigants, language access and disability access-- that we believe every state should have in place to ensure meaningful access to justice for everyone. We then examine the degree to which every state has actually adopted those policies.
Based on those results, we assign every state a score.
Performance is measured on a scale of 0 to 100. See our methodology discussion
for more details on how this scoring works and on how we do the work.
The maps and other data below are based on a composite score
that shows how states perform across all of these categories. You can also see
how each state performs under each distinct policy area by using the menus
above or below. On those pages, you can also find details about the specific
policies we are looking for.
In 2021, we have expanded our inquiry to include a new
policy area-- fines and fees. State scores on fines and fees are not factored
into the Justice Index composite score. That is because the fines and fees
arena is in some ways distinct from the other justice index categories-- it is
less about improving access, and more about rooting abuse and oppression out
from the justice system."
The specific ranking for Fines and Fees is available separately
at: https://ncaj.org/state-rankings/2020/fines-and-fees
Microsoft Podcast: Using microeconomics to solve mass
incarceration featuring Hunt Allcott and Evan Rose
I regularly listen to the Microsoft Research Podcast. I was delighted to recently find one on some work that their researchers have explored mass incarceration issues.
The podcast summary states:
“In the world of economics, researchers at Microsoft are
examining a range of complex systems—from those that impact the technologies we
use to those that inform the laws and policies we create—through the lens of a
social science that goes beyond the numbers to better understand people and
society.
In this episode, Dr. Hunt Allcott, Senior Principal
Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, talks with Dr. Evan Rose,
Postdoctoral Researcher, whom Allcott describes as “one of the most engaging
and talented researchers in applied microeconomics today.” They’ll discuss how
Rose’s experience teaching adult learners at San Quentin State Prison has
resonated throughout his research, and they’ll delve into what his and others’
work is uncovering about the criminal justice system today, including the
effects of incarceration and parole, impacts of ban-the-box hiring practices, and
racial disparities and discrimination.”
Announcing NIEM JSON Specification Version 5.0 release candidate 2 Available for Public Comment
NIEM continues to evolve by expanding support for JSON in addition to XML. The following is their
most recent announcement:
The NIEM JSON Specification, Version 5.0 release candidate 2
(RC2) is available for public comment and review through Thursday, May 13.
Please visit the NIEM Specifications page to view the RC2 specification and to
provide feedback.
This is the final stage before we officially publish the
NIEM JSON Specification version 5.0. At this point in the release cycle, we are
working to get to a stable draft and are looking to address errors and bugs
only.
How Clean Are ‘Clean Slates’?
A May 2021 Ohio Court News article by Kathleen Maloney delves
into the subject of court record sealing/expungement and the challenges of commercial
data services.
http://www.courtnewsohio.gov/inDepth/2021/May/default.asp#.YK5lIqhKhPb
They summarize that “(e)ligible people have the opportunity
under state law to have certain case records sealed or expunged. But challenges
arise – sometimes repeatedly – when commercial companies release sealed or
expunged criminal histories in background checks, often to potential employers
and landlords.
The article does a very good job of framing and summarizing
the issues.
England and Wales Divorce Online:
The impact of the online system was said that:
“Currently, 70% of all new divorce applications in England
& Wales are being submitted online. It takes half the time to fill in the old paper forms. As a result, we return less than 1% of online applications
because of user error, compared to 40% in the old system.
Strong reciprocal engagement with service users and other
stakeholders has been integral to the success of this project.
The online divorce [test] has been a triumphant success and
shows, to my mind conclusively, that this is – must be – the way of the future.”
Congratulations
Digitizing permanent records: the case for PDF/A-4
An article “derived from the PDF Association's comment on a
proposed rulemaking from NARA entitled “Federal Records Management: Digitizing
Permanent Records and Reviewing Records Schedules” was posted.
Our comment focuses on the proposed rulemaking's exclusion of ISO 19005-4 (PDF/A-4) as an acceptable digital document format for digitizing permanent records.
The PDF Association has recommended to NARA that the
proposed regulation be modified to include ISO 19005-4:2020 (PDF/A-4) in the
set of acceptable archival formats.”
Tiny Chat talks with a Court User
The always excellent NCSC Tiny Chats explore a lot of access
to justice topics from an operational, procedural, and sometimes even academic
viewpoint. This chat is different. Danielle and Zach talk with Robyn about what it was like for her to try and get divorced from her abusive spouse, how it
felt asking for a fee waiver, and what she wishes courts understood about what
it is like for someone to try and use the system on their own. Access to
justice is about people.
Excellent.
No comments:
Post a Comment