National court nonprofit receives grants of more than $2 million

Money will fund projects on criminal appeals, problem-solving courts, court caseloads

Williamsburg, Va. (Oct. 18, 2010) — The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has been awarded three grants totaling more than $2 million from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The funding will be used to compile a database of criminal appeals, perform a comprehensive census of problem-solving courts, and continue work on the Court Statistics Project, which serves as a national archive of state court caseload statistics.

The work that will be funded by these grants will be conducted by NCSC’s Research Division, with support from other court organizations and national nonprofits. 

The bulk of the funding —nearly $1.25 million — comes from a three-year grant that will be used to create a nationally representative database of about 5,000 criminal appeals from the country’s 143 criminal appellate courts. This project will fill the gap of missing empirical information about criminal appeals and complement the National Center’s civil appeals project. The data to be collected during the survey will focus on the key characteristics of criminal appeals and the issues that are raised and addressed by them, as well as the ways in which appellate courts dispose of criminal appeals, the time it takes to process them, and how their outcomes impact criminal cases. Representatives from the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeals, Conference of Appellate Technology Officials, and the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks will serve as advisors on the project. 

Nearly $350,000 will be provided by a two-year grant that will allow NCSC to produce a national map of problem-solving courts, which are dockets that use a therapeutic approach to address chronic criminal behavior. Although problem-solving courts have been widely endorsed by judges, court administrators, and bar associations, existing research reveals little about their effectiveness or the population they serve. This comprehensive census will set the stage for researchers to investigate what does and does not work for problem-solving courts, and will help funding agencies, legislators, policy makers, and courts make more informed decisions about these programs. The National Drug Court Institute and National Opinion Research Center will act as subcontractors on this project. NCSC also will seek guidance from subject-matter experts, policy leaders, and statewide problem-solving-court coordinators.   

A one-year grant of almost $420,000 will fund NCSC’s continued work on the Court Statistics Project, which has collected and analyzed data relating to the nation’s courts for more than 30 years. The availability of this comprehensive information helps court administrators set realistic benchmarks for performance and resources, and is fundamental to the judiciary’s status as an independent, coequal branch of the government. The 2010-11 grant will help further the implementation of a new national reporting framework for appellate court data, continue the Web-based publication of court statistical data and reports, expand efforts to promote electronic data collection, and support the National Center’s ability to provide expert-level technical assistance to states implementing statistical reporting. The Conference of State Court Administrators and National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks collaborate with NCSC on the Court Statistics Project.

The National Center for State Courts, headquartered in Williamsburg, Va., is a nonprofit court reform organization dedicated to improving the administration of justice by providing leadership and service to the state courts. Founded in 1971 by the Conference of Chief Justices and Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger, NCSC provides education, training, technology, management, and research services to the nation’s state courts.