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A report on the results of “The Court Appearance Project” in North Carolina was released recently.
“The Court Appearance Project launched in August of 2021 to support local North Carolina criminal justice system leaders committed to examining the scale and impact of missed court appearances in their communities and devising policy solutions to address them. New Hanover, Orange, and Robeson Counties were selected from a diverse pool of applicants, based on the collective commitment of local practitioners and their ideas and momentum for improving policies. Teams were comprised of stakeholders from across the justice system, including the senior resident superior court judge; chief district court judge; representatives from the offices of the district attorney, public defender, clerk, and sheriff; and others.
With technical assistance support from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Government Criminal Justice Innovation Lab,3 the teams met over several months to review findings from the court and jail data, evaluate the available research, and examples of innovation, and develop consensus local solutions. Relying on their combined expertise and the findings from the data, each county team crafted policy solutions that they believed would deliver a high impact in their courts and communities.3 To contact project staff, please reach out to Jessica Smith, Director of the Criminal Justice Innovation Lab, at smithj@sog.unc.edu, and Terry Schuster, Manager of Pew’s Public Safety Performance Project, at tschuster@pewtrust.org.
In brief, here are some findings from the project:
- Geography has an impact on court appearance rates
- Traffic misdemeanors accounted for 82% of all nonappearances
- Driving while license revoked is the #1 offense for nonappearance
- Younger people have higher rates of nonappearance
- There are racial differences in both cases served and nonappearance rates
- Case length has an impact on nonappearance
It is worthwhile to read the entire report to learn about the impact of nonappearance on the public and the justice system and the project's recommendations (including the use of text reminders). It is available in full as a PDF download at: