Kankakee County, Illinois issues RFP for Court CMS

Note: This article has been edited on June 11, 2007 to reflect the extended response date. 

We received the following announcement:

The mission of this RFP is to obtain a CMS that will provide unity and cohesiveness within the various offices of the Kankakee County Court System. The core is the Clerk of the Circuit Court, with the integration of the States’ Attorney, Public Defender, Probation, Judges, County Sheriff, and local law enforcement agencies. Other Court Support Services will also be incorporated to facilitate the Court Processes.

The Kankakee County project manager and sole point of contact for purposes of this procurement is:

Becky Farmer, Project Manager
Phone: (815) 937-2905
rfarmer@k3county.net

The RFP, attachments, Kankakee County contact information and Kankakee County demographic information is located at http://www.k3county.net/bidsnrfps.html

To be considered, all proposals must be received in the issuing office no later than 2:00 p.m. Central Time on June 18, 2007 July 9, 2007. Proposals received after this time and date will not be considered.

BJA Regional Information Sharing Conference in Jacksonville, Florida

SEARCH Group and the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance sent us the following press release: 

It’s time to act fast if you don’t want to miss the last of four BJA-sponsored conferences to be held at the Hyatt Regency-Jacksonville Riverfront June 4-6, 2007. The cutoff date to reserve your hotel rooms is May 12.

Register now at:  http://www.search.org/conferences/2006reginfosharing/

Can your organization afford to lag behind in the critical area of planning, managing, and implementing technology solutions for your information sharing systems? If not, now is your chance to take advantage of this great opportunity to:

• Hear success stories from justice and public safety practitioners from your region and across the nation as they discuss pitfalls to avoid, lessons learned, and what has worked for them.
• Learn how to use the latest developments in policy, privacy and security, technologies, and standards to solve your information sharing challenges.
• Participate in daily breakout sessions tailored specifically for executives, managers and implementers
• Benefit from sessions that focus on strategic planning, best practices, information exchange modeling, knowledge management, partnership building—and more!
• Network with fellow practitioners from local, state, and federal agencies.

Some recipients of this email may already have attended one of the earlier conferences, and we are glad to have met you.  We have included you as a recipient so that you may encourage others in your organization to attend this last conference.

Sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, in cooperation with SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, and the GJXDM Training and Technical Assistance Committee.

NIEM 2.0 Beta1

The NIEM 2.0 Beta1 is available for review and comment. It can be downloaded from http://niem.gtri.gatech.edu/niem/2.0beta1/niem2b1.zip. The release package includes a document with release notes that detail changes and the planned timeline for the 2.0 release. Please direct any questions or comments to Scott Fairholm at sfairholm@ncsc.dni.us. The deadline for comments is May 15.

Global Justice Information Sharing Conference Announced

The US Department of Justice has announced their upcoming Global Justice Information Sharing Conference to be held from August 21-23 in Chicago, Illinois.  The conference website states that (t)he U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, has collaborated with various local, state, tribal, and federal partners to develop the best possible resources to support nationwide information sharing implementations. The Global Justice Information Sharing Users' Conference will highlight best practices and lessons learned and will feature new implementation projects. The presentations will highlight both the development of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and the many projects supported by DOJ's Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM). Additional information regarding NIEM can be found at www.niem.gov, and additional information on GJXDM can be found at www.it.ojp.gov.

Washington State Tests Electronic Citation System

According to a Press Release from the Washington Courts:
"Drivers stopped for violating traffic laws in Washington, or who are involved in a collision, are going to see something new. Currently, a select group of officers from local and state law enforcement agencies are using a system that allows electronic ticketing and collision reporting. Preliminary feedback indicates a reduction in traffic stop times."

"Prior to testing the electronic system, I timed a number of my traffic stops," said Officer David Johansen of the Lacey Police Department. "Electronic ticketing has cut these times by about half, allowing drivers to get back on the road faster." A study will be conducted to determine the amount of time officers actually save. Results are expected in fall 2007.
The overall project known as "eTrip" has a website with additional information on this and other initiatives.

King County Language Interpreter Website Wins Award

In 2006, the National Association for Court Management recognized the King County, Washington District Court with their Justice achievement award.  The Washington Courts noted this award in a press release that describes the system.  In addition, you can visit the website and download a Technical FAQ.  A well deserved award for an innovative system.

New Technology Trends Articles Posted

John Matthias and Jim McMillan have posted two new trends articles on the NCSC's website. John's article is titled E-Filing Expansion in State, Local, and Federal Courts 2007. Jim's article is titled Using Technology to Improve Customer Service. Both can be downloaded by clicking on the title links. Both articles are part of the NCSC's Future Trends in State Courts series that are compiled each year in the the Trends Report.

Phoenix Municipal Court Offers WiFi Service

Tim Lawler, the IST Division Administrator of the Phoenix, Arizona Municipal Court wrote recently that they have installed "no charge" filtered wireless Internet service in their court.

Federal Courts Speed Prisoner Transfers

The February, 2007 US Federal Courts newsletter, The Third Branch contains an article on their web based "eDesignate" system "that allows a probation office and the U.S. Marshals Service to electronically transmit documents to the Bureau of Prisons after a defendant is sentenced to custody". The article goes on to note that "more than 14,000 designations have been made using the eDesignate system".

Federal Appellate Courts Go Live with CM/ECF

The March, 2007 issue of The Third Branch federal court newsletter contains an article on the implementation of their new case management system in 2007. The article states that the new system will allow for electronic document filing in the near future.