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Grant Awarded to the NJC to Implement New Case Management and Sex Offender Programs

10/29/2007

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is helping The National Judicial College tackle two high-priority court issues. A recently awarded grant from the BJA for $545,238 will enable The National Judicial College (NJC) to conduct new programs for judges – one addressing case management issues and one on sentencing sex offenders.

“The issues of sex offender sentencing and case management are critical areas for judges in today’s quickly evolving judicial terrain,” said Hon. William F. Dressel, president of The National Judicial College. “It is time to revisit these issues and we are grateful to the Bureau of Justice Assistance for enabling us to meet the needs of judges through these two new and innovative programs.”

The goals of the new sex offender programs will be to develop a model curriculum on sentencing sex offenders, present a train-the-trainer course on the new model curriculum and pilot the curriculum in two states. The NJC will collaborate with the Center for Effective Public Policy to design and implement this program.

To address case management issues, The National Judicial College will conduct a needs assessment in the area of case management and host a summit inviting judges and experts to evaluate best practices in case management. The summit will pave the way for the development and publication of a report documenting the best practices discovered during the summit. The grant will also enable the NJC to update previous writings in the area of case management. In addition, focus groups will be held in four states to examine their current case management methods in order to compose new methods to increase efficiency in those states.

The BJA is authorized to award grants to state entities and units of local government to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system – with emphasis on violent crime and serious offenders – and enforce state and local laws similar to those in the federal Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802(6) et seq.).

The BJA is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. Its mission is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy development to support local, state, and tribal justice strategies to achieve safer communities.