Improving FTA/FTP Processes with Better Policy and Tech

 

 

FTA or Failure to Appear and FTP, or Failure to Pay is the source of a great percentage of warrants issued by courts along with giving great stress to those involved. 

I have been thinking about the civil unrest earlier this year and the place that failure to appear warrants seems to be involved.  In this post, I will share some recent thinking about these warrants and some tech that can help?

How not to do it: Videoconferencing Edition

I had the great pleasure of participating in a group study meeting on the use of videoconferencing (aka telepresence) in the justice system this past week.  One of our good friends from Texas sent me the following story from the Houston Chronicle newspaper from this past February.  While the issues presented regarding money bail release are worthy of discussion elsewhere, I must comment on the technical setup shown in the accompanying video.

Judge Michael Marcus – The Passing of a Court Tech Pioneer

Hon. Michael Marcus

Last month we were saddened to hear of the passing of Judge Michael Marcus formerly of the Multnomah County (Portland, Oregon) Circuit Court.  I had the great pleasure of knowing Michael since the late 1990’s because of his work in developing the concept of “Smart Sentencing”.   A video of a presentation Judge Marcus made on his work from 2010 is available here.

Judge Marcus also wrote one of the most popular articles in the history of the Court Tech Bulletin about his "Search for a Quiet Keyboard” in 2007.

But back to the main subject below.

JTC Webinar: Using Technology to Improve Pretrial Release Decision-Making

The Joint Technology Committee (JTC) will host a webinar next Tuesday, June 28 on technology and risk-assessment tools to support pretrial release decision-making.