Justice Information Systems Resource Guide

A high-quality justice information system is the cornerstone of a court’s effectiveness in managing caseload. A good system usually takes years to develop and refine, and courts receive a high return on their investment. Case management systems combine docketing or event processing, calendaring, scheduling, noticing, statistical and managerial reporting, and the financial aspect of a case into one process by eliminating repetitive procedures.

When courts first automated, systems were proprietary with little or no integration capabilities with other systems within the court, such as civil, criminal, family, and juvenile systems; with other jurisdictions within the county or statewide; or with other related agencies, such as law enforcement, the prosecutor’s office, corrections, social agencies, and probation. Courts are now very aware of the importance of systems being able to “talk” to each other. Since the events of September 11th, high-level plans are being developed to provide nationwide access to court information and criminal histories. As integration capabilities increase, the development of functional standards and service-oriented architecture is also gaining in importance.

After September 11, the importance of integrated justice information systems became a new top priority nationally. Homeland Security efforts will depend on these systems to track terrorists and other offenders. The National Governors Association has announced a pilot program designed to involve all 50 states in integrated criminal justice efforts. The project is intended to allow federal, state, and local officials access to information in criminal record databases to protect against terrorism attacks. It is expected that over one billion dollars will be spent on this effort.

One of the first successful integrated systems was Colorado’s CICJIS program, soon followed by Pennsylvania’s Justice System Network, JNET. Each took very different approaches to creating their systems, and each is measuring success in different ways. The ten-million-dollar Colorado system took five years of diligent planning and links to five state-level criminal justice agencies—law enforcement, prosecution, courts, adult corrections, and juvenile corrections—which enables all criminal justice agencies to track offenders through the criminal justice system from arrest and prosecution to adjudication and incarceration.

Now that electronic court case management systems can be fed directly from law-enforcement systems or attorney’s offices, and access to court records is immediately available to the public via the Internet, the paper-on-demand court has become a reality.

Links to related online resources are listed below. Non-digitized publications may be borrowed from the NCSC Library; call numbers are provided.

Featured Links

JRA Implementation Project Competitive Award Announcement Proposals sought to design and implement information sharing solutions that utilize the Justice Reference Architecture (JRA).

Functional Standards Functional Standards for civil, domestic relations, criminal, juvenile, and traffic case management.

Case Management Systems Vendors Case Management Systems Vendors from the Court Technology Vendor List. See also Court Technology Consulting Vendors and Calendaring/Scheduling Vendors.

Courttechnologybulletin This online version of the Court Technology Bulletin features cutting edge information about technology and the court community. (Note: Digitized copies of the printed version of the Bulletins from 1989 to 2003 are available in the Digital Archive.)

Meeting the Challenge of Providing Cost-Effective Network High Availability at Judicial Remote Sites Presentation from the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Court Technology Conference. The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) share with other state courts lessons-learned on their Wide Area Network (WAN).

Keys to a Successful Integrated Justice Information System Implementation Presentation from the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Court Technology Conference that focuses on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia disciplined process approach to system specification and program management , the results, and lessons learned.

Making Good on the Promise of NIEM: Building an IEPD from the Ground Up Presentation from the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Court Technology Conference regarding the practical approach to the development and implementation of IEPDs.

Kaizen: Establishing Circles of Excellence to Create and Improve Puerto Rico`s Unified Case Management System Presentation from the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Court Technology Conference the demonstrates Puerto Rico's Commonwealth General Court of Justice Unified Case Management System.

Enabling the Business of the Courts, State`s Attorney, and Law Enforcement Presentation from the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Court Technology Conference discusses the Lake County Circuit Courts' journey to create a paperless criminal justice enterprise.

Information Sharing and Integrated Judicial Information System Presentation from the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Court Technology Conference looks at the characteristics and cases of the Judicial Information System of Korea.

California Courts Technology Center/Shared Services: A Five-Year Perspective with Lessons Learned Presentation from the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Court Technology Conference that outlines the California Judicial Branch’s journey to deploy a statewide Court Case Management System (CMS).

Court Technology Conference Presentations

Presentations from earlier Court Technology Conferences.

NACM Justice Achievement Awards

A compilation of the National Association for Court Management's Justice Achievement Awards from 2000-2011.

Trends Articles

General

2008 Annual Report: IlJIS Implementation Board . (2008). Illinois Integrated Justice Information System This report outlines the current activities of the Board toward the enhanced sharing of justice information throughout Illinois.

Electronic Citation and Warning System (eCWS). Judicial Technology and Automation Committee, Indiana Courts. The Judicial Technology and Automation Committee, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, Indiana State Police, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Indiana State Excise Police and several local law enforcement agencies are working together to provide law enforcement officers statewide the ability to produce tickets electronically at the time of a traffic stop. Web site includes a "Demo" of the electronic system.

Florida Dependency Court Information System. Florida State Courts The development of a standard dependency data management system is critical to ensuring positive outcomes for children and providing case tracking to meet appropriate guidelines.

Harrison, Blake. Funding Justice Information Sharing . (May 2005). National Conference of State Legislatures This report captures the variety of funding mechanisms being employed, including state appropriations, technology funds, user fees, federal sources and public/private partnerships.

JNET: A Case Study. (June 2005). U. S. Department of Justice. Office of Judicial Programs A PowerPoint presentation of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Justice Network. - "From Collaboration to Integration."

Justice Inquiry System . Florida State Courts The Judicial Inquiry System (JIS) is a technology initiative by the State Courts which offers the Judiciary and other criminal justice entities access to a streamlined dashboard in which a user may query multiple data sources through a single point of entry

Walker, Lin. Justice Network, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (1998). Court Technology Bulletin.

The first of three Integrated Criminal Justice Systems Reviews of the most prominent integrated justice systems in 1998: others include the "Colorado Integrated Criminal Justice Information System"; and the "Washington State Justice Information Network".

Holmes, Barbara Managed Randomized Judicial Assignment in a Case Management System . (February 2008). Court Information Technology Officers` Consortium: Technology Experience Bulletin: TEB 2008-02 Designing a managed, randomized judicial assignment function involves planning and the development of requirements as well as consideration of the reallocation and randomization techniques to be used.

Mission Impossible: Strong Governance Structures for the Integration of Justice Information Systems. (2002). Bureau of Justice Assistance This guidebook helps provide the tools local governments need to develop successful governance structures and improve upon existing structures. It can enhance the capability and capacity of local governments to move toward the horizontal and vertical integration of justice information sharing systems.

Geerkin, Dr. Michael. Performance Measurement for Justice Information Systems . (March 2008). Center for Society, Law and Justice , Texas State University For criminal justice and law enforcement agencies, new information system projects must be justified in terms of documented improvements in justice, efficiency, and public safety. This justification is often made with performance measures.

Webster, Larry. Roadmap for Integrated Justice: A Guide for Planning and Management. (March 2004). Search, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics. This report was created to help policy leaders of the justice enterprise understand their roles and responsibilities, so they can provide the strong leadership that is essential for integration project success.

Why is Integration Important?. IIJIS - Illinois Integrated Justice Information System Brochure defining the entities and benefits of an Integrated Criminal Justice System.

Online Articles

Indiana Supreme Court Receives Honorable Mention in International for Information Accuracy. (November 2008). Supreme Court, State of Indiana The Indiana Supreme Court has been recognized by the Information Integrity Coalition (IIC) for providing accurate, consistent and reliable information.

Heck, Cary. Information Collection, Storage, and Use for Drug Courts: Developing a Statewide System. (February 2005). Statewide Technical Assistance Bulletin, Volume 3.

The purpose of this Bulletin is to discuss and make recommendations regarding the development of statewide drug court case management systems.

Douglas, Merrill Justice Collaboration. (July 2007). Government Technology Magazine Pennsylvania's Justice Network (JNET) has gained widespread acclaim as a tool for sharing criminal justice and public safety information.

Missouri`s Judicial Branch: ``XML technology paid off this year`` . (January 2006). Government Technology Magazine Missouri's Judicial Branch has been involved in implementation of a statewide case management system for almost ten years.

Van Sant, Will Reboot of Computer Project for Courts Sought. . (September 2008). tampabay.com, St Petersburg Times, FL. After sinking nearly $10-million and years of labor into an enhanced computer system for local courts, Pinellas County leaders want to scrap the in-house effort and pay a private company millions more to complete the job.

Musgrave, Jane. Report: Multimillion-dollar Computer System paralyzes Palm Beach County Courts. . (June 2008). PalmBeachPost.com A multimillion-dollar computer system that was supposed to help revolutionize Palm Beach County's justice system has paralyzed it instead, according to a preliminary report from consultants hired to sort out the mounting problems.

JIS Organizations

Forum for the Advancement of Court Technology (FACT). http://fact.ncsc.dni.us/ FACT is a consortium of private-sector companies and senior court representatives dedicated to strengthening the dialogue between courts and their providers of technology.

IJIS Institute. The IJIS Institute is the only national organization that brings together industry and government in an effort to improve national security and promote effective information sharing across all levels of the justice, public safety, and homeland security communities.

Justice information Sharing Practitioners Network (JISP). JISPNet.org JISP is interested in best practices, standards, and resources for solving the issues of information sharing within criminal and juvenile justice at local, state, and national levels.

National Association for Justice Information Systems (NAJIS). http://www.najis.org/ NAJIS is an organization of individuals who are responsible for the acquisition, operation and management of local, state and federal criminal justice information systems.

Information Privacy and Security

Arizona Judicial Information Network (AJIN) Security Manual . (April 2004). Arizona Supreme Court This document establishes the policies, procedures and standards used to govern the Arizona Judicial Information Network (AJIN).

Harbitter, Alan Ph.D. Information Security in Integrated Justice Applications. (February 2003). Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute An Introductory Guide for Practioners that discusses important security technologies, such as encryption, public key infrastructure, biometrics, firewalls, and virtual private networks, among others, and discusses best practices in security for an integrated justice environment.

Information Systems Acceptable Use Policy . (March 2006). Iowa Judicial Branch The purpose of this policy is to outline the acceptable use of computer equipment at Iowa Judicial Branch. These rules are in place to protect the employee and Iowa Judicial Branch. Inappropriate use exposes Iowa Judicial Branch to risks including virus attacks, compromise of network systems and services, and legal issues.

Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. (February 2008). U.S. Department of Justice`s Global Justice Information Sharing Initiatives

Report contains policy templates for information sharing. One element of a more robust information gathering and sharing system is an up-to-date and comprehensive policy protecting individuals’ privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.

Privacy Policy Guidance. (October 2006). Illinois Integrated Justice Information System Privacy Policy Subcommittee This report identifies and discusses several of the privacy issues confronting the enhanced collection, analysis, and sharing of justice information made possible by advancing computer technologies.