EFFICIENCY
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IMPACT/COST SAVINGS
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Administrative Consolidation
Over the past three years, a new administration has been established with the authority and countywide support to consolidate the administrative and operational structure of the superior, juvenile and district courts. Under this model, there is one court administrator and functions and tasks previously duplicated in various court units have been grouped together with standardized policies and procedures. (Yakima)
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Savings = $122,378
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Administrative Consolidation
The Superior Court, in an agreement with the Whatcom County Council, has consolidated the operation of the superior court administration and the county clerk's office. (Whatcom County)
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Administrative Consolidation
Two courts are sharing a court administrator. (Bainbridge Island & Poulsbo)
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Both cities will save one-half the expense of a full-time court administrator, however both cities will need to increase the hours of other staff to fill in for the time a full-time court administrator would perform staff duties. This will concentrate the court administrator's time in administrative functions, instead of staff clerk functions.
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Administrative Consolidation
In 2003, Grays Harbor County District Court reorganized itself into a criminal department at its Montesano Office and a civil department at its Aberdeen office. The court no longer tries to offer all services at both locations.
At the end of January, 2004, upon the retirement of the court administrator, Grays Harbor County District Court hired the probation director as court administrator as well as maintaining limited duties as the probation director (budget and staff supervision without case monitoring or court appearances). The probation director position was replaced with a probation officer at a lesser salary range, and the court was able to keep an experienced and valuable employee as administrator.
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This resulted in staff and judicial efficiencies so that one staff position was eliminated by not hiring a replacement after a retirement. Savings about $25,000 per year.
Savings, about $10,000 per year.
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Administrative Consolidation
Consolidation of four district courts with five locations into one court with two locations. (Pierce County)
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Credible data was presented that indicated court consolidation would save the County over $300,000 per year.
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Administrative Consolidation
The jury management functions (summonsing, qualifying, paying, etc.) have been consolidated in most jurisdictions in the state within the superior court or county clerk's office.
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Administrative Consolidation
The Clark County District Court manages the interpreters for both district court and superior court.
Pierce County Superior Court manages the interpreters for superior court, district court, juvenile court, probation, prosecution, and department of assigned counsel.
Thurston County Superior Court coordinates the assignment, use and compensation for Court Interpreters between the Superior and District Courts. While each court maintains its own interpreter coordinator, we share a common source list and coordinate to prevent over-charging for services or “double dipping.”
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Savings have not been quantified, but by elimination of “double dipping” savings/cost avoidance could be as much as $10,000 annually.
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Administrative Consolidation
Mason County Juvenile and District Court have a combined administration for probation services.
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Administrative Consolidation
During the last four years, since the hiring of a new court administrator for Superior Court, the Thurston County Superior and Juvenile Courts have been Administratively Unified under the overall management of the Superior Court’s Judicial Administrative Officer. With the retirement of the Juvenile Court Administrator and the Family Court Supervisor, three positions were consolidated and reclassified into an Assistant Judicial Administrative Officer.
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Approximately $120,000 annually was saved and re-directed to absorb budget cuts and provide program enhancements in Family Court and Juvenile Probation.
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Administrative Consolidation
King County Superior Court assumed management responsibilities for the Department of Judicial Administration (County Clerk) and restructured court clerk position duties. Eliminated 8.5 judicial assistant FTEs.
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Savings of $461,975
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Coordination in County
In Skagit County the courts of limited jurisdiction have coordinated several activities.
1. Cross-court receipting between the district and municipal courts. Payments of any kind, including bail can be paid at any location.
2. Cross-court warrant quash. A defendant can go to any court (not Superior) and quash a warrant, based on court policy (the municipal and district court have the same policy); the court will also issue a new court date for that defendant.
3. The District Court handles all superior court rightings to alleviate the necessity of transporting a defendant across the street for a five-minute hearing. District Court has an in-custody courtroom directly under the jail, so transporting is not an issue, this saves on jail personnel time to transport and also increases safety.
4. The District Court also provides courtroom access for the Municipal Courts of Mt. Vernon and Burlington for their weekly in-custody hearings. Saves transport time to the court.
5. District Court handles all jail arraignments for the municipal courts, again alleviating transport to the individual courts.
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Courtroom Sharing
Renton Municipal Court has a second courtroom that is made available to King County District Court at no cost.
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Court Reporting
Yakima County Superior Court eliminated two court reporter positions and uses a digital recording system.
Cowlitz County Superior Court has replaced court reporters with video recording.
Skamania County Superior Court has replaced the court reporter with video recording. The Clerk uses the log function of the system to prepare Clerk's minutes.
Mason County Superior Court uses audio recording instead of court reporters. Staff in superior court prepare the verbatim reports of proceedings.
King County Superior Court eliminated four court reporters and uses electronic audio recording.
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Savings = $21,243 per year
Eliminates the need to keep a duplicate log.
Since inception of this practice in 1987, the court has generated revenue in excess of $150,000. This also creates significant savings in court reporter salaries.
Savings of $256,212
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Real-Time Court Reporting
Thurston County Superior Court has adopted a single standard software platform for use by all of our Court Reporters. Real-Time Court Reporting is utilized in all Thurston County Superior Court Judges’ courtrooms. By adopting a single standard application, our reporters are able to float from court to court, allowing for a team approach to reporter utilization. Each judge maintains a primary reporter, but to minimize the need for pro tem reporters, they are assigned wherever they are needed.
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Savings have not been quantified, but the Court believes that significant cost avoidance has been achieved by reduced need for pro tem reporters.
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Recording Equipment
Tacoma Municipal Court installed FTR Gold Digital Recording Software in five courtrooms. The original reason for pursuing this technologically-advanced system centered on improved recording quality for records requests and appeals, and the improved recording quality has far exceeded expectations. It was also anticipated that the real-time case tracking, the use of compact discs for record requests instead of tapes, and the ability to use existing computers would save money.
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During the present biennium (2003/2004) the projected savings in clerk time related to archiving, retrieval, and locating/logging cases to complete record requests and appeals, equals approximately $57,000. Add to that amount maintenance required for aging recorders and an obsolete tape duplicator, off-site tape storage and retrieval, and the cost of blank tapes for the courtrooms, and the savings for the biennium exceeds $70,000.
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Personnel
Spokane County District Court has increased the responsibilities and teamwork atmosphere relating to Bailiffs so that they are now assisting the Clerks' Offices regularly in entering infractions, filing cases, monitoring low level offenders for violations to relieve the Probation Office.
The Spokane County District Court restructured the Clerk's Office to reduce span of control, increase functional responsibilities and improve efficiency and accountability of that office.
The Spokane County District Court improved personnel procedures, created desk manual for all employees, with their help, began the process of conducting Employee Development Reviews two years ago.
The Spokane Municipal Court worked with City Civil Service to streamline job classifications to three levels down from six classifications, which will allow individuals to be assigned more variety of tasks, less specialization and improve productivity. Also went to a team concept with each group of employees assigned to a Judge.
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As a result, we lost one person last year and we are still keeping our heads above water.
These evaluations resulted in the loss of four employees who were marginal (one was terminated for cause, three left for other reasons).
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Personnel
King County Superior Court hired a full-time guardian ad litem (GAL) to replace private contract GALs.
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Savings of $50,000
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Personnel
King County Superior Court combined six half-time positions in Family Court Services into three full-time positions.
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Savings of $40,497
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Personnel
King County Superior Court added a database administrator position to reduce reliance on outside computer assistance.
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Savings of $147,776
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Personnel
King County Superior Court has replaced contract services for non-SSODA evaluations with a court employee.
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Savings of $17,850
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Courthouse Facilitators
In most counties, the superior court or the county clerk have established courthouse facilitator positions. The courthouse facilitators assist pro se family law litigants in completing mandatory forms which reduces the amount of judicial time needed for hearing the cases.
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Facilitators reduce both the number of court hearings needed to reach resolution, and bench time during hearings. (Source: Sonntag, A. "The Courthouse Facilitator: A Success Story from Kitsap County, Washington'" The Court Manager, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 16 - 18 (1995)).
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Courthouse Facilitators
The Cowlitz County Clerk developed a local court rule to require that before any pro se family law matter can be placed on a court calendar for finalization, the parties must have an appointment with the Courthouse Facilitator. The facilitator reviews the parties’ paperwork going through a checklist developed by the judges and county clerk and they do not get placed on the calendar until they have completed the whole checklist.
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This has reduced the number of pro se final calendars per month from four to two, which saves judicial time and clerk time and has eliminated the constant continuances of pro se matters that do not have everything done properly.
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Courthouse Facilitator
In Thurston County both the County Clerk and now the Superior Court have Courthouse Facilitators. The Superior Court has focused the work of its facilitator on Families with dependent children, in order to qualify for Title IV-D funding. The position complements the facilitators in the Clerk’s Office. Duties include conducting the mandatory orientation programs for petitioners who have children. These programs address many significant issues early in the process and provide valuable information that can significantly reduce the time involved to move cases through the system. Participants are informed of opportunities for many issues to be resolved earlier in the process, through arbitration and dispute resolution. They also receive an explanation of the process they are beginning.
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Resolving many issues before judicial intervention is needed. Self represented parties are more prepared when they come before the court, which can reduce the number of continuances and matters being re-set on calendars.
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Family Court Services
Family court services collect user fees for services. (Yakima County Superior Court)
King County Superior Court charges fees for family court services.
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The program's $168,204 budget is completely funded by user fees. (Yakima)
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Arbitration Fee
The court has implemented the fee for requesting mandatory arbitration (RCW 36.18.016(23)). (Yakima County Superior Court, King County Superior Court)
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Revenue Increase = $35,200 per year (Yakima)
Revenue Increase = $140,000 per year (King)
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Imaging of records, electronic filing (many county clerk's offices).
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Kitsap County Clerk reports a savings of 0.5 FTE from emailing and faxing documents directly from the imaging system.
Imaging allows clerks to docket while in the courtroom, it also allows judges, prosecutor, sheriff, and attorneys to access the records they need without coming to the clerk's office. Chelan County Clerk was able to maintain the same staffing level for over ten years because of the efficiency.
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Speedy trial revisions
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Having speedy trial issues decided early in a case, reduces the chance of case dismissal.
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Water court
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Jury Commission Recommendations
Allowing jurors to propose questions in civil cases.
Providing jurors information on how to conduct deliberations.
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Pooling jurors
Sending a juror to superior court courtroom for voir dire and when not chosen sending to a district court courtroom. (Clark, Clallam)
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Courts are moving to one day one trial or two day one trial (Chelan, Kitsap, Thurston)
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Increased juror satisfaction
Improved summons response rate
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Jury Administration
Thurston County has maintained a unified jury system for a number of years. The Superior Court administers the Jury Pool. Panels are summoned and oriented by Superior Court and then sent to District Court for Trials. Olympia Municipal Court contracts for jury support and use of courtrooms to conduct their jury trials at the County Courthouse. Superior Court also provides bailiffs (jury attendants) for all juries.
Thurston County also has used a modified one-day/one-trial jury system for several years.
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This unified jury system has been a cost avoidance for the District and Municipal Court and allows for better utilization of Jury staff in superior court.
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Many courts are using the struck jury method of voir dire.
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Shortens the time required to select a jury.
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Pierce County Superior Court’s Juror Response Web site became available to the citizens of Pierce County. This new web site permits prospective jurors summoned for jury duty the option of responding through the internet. A prospective juror can now be qualified, excused or postponed to another jury service date – all electronically.
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Electronic transmission of juror information has already saved Pierce County several thousand dollars. These savings have been in prepaid postage costs and staff time handling, sorting, deciphering handwritten responses and data entry of the returned summons. The approximate estimated savings so far is $23,500.
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Consolidation of information
Cowlitz County courts have placed most of their forms on the County website which allows citizens to print them off at their own expense. Many court forms are ten pages in length. The Volunteer Orientation Manual is no longer printed and bound.
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Although most of the savings is "transferred" from county to citizen, there is some savings from the elimination of excessive printing (ordering more than is needed and destroying when updates are made.)
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Provision of information
Public display monitors were installed in the Pierce County City-County Building. These monitors display courtroom information so the public can quickly determine where they need to be.
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Saves staff and public time.
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Collection of Legal Financial Obligations (LFO)
Clallam County Superior and District Court have consolidated the Pay or Appear programs for collection of LFOs.
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All hearings are held in District Court with one shared support staff.
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Elimination of Hearings
Standard omnibus form has eliminated omnibus hearings. The status hearing calendar was eliminated and incorporated into other set calendars. (Clallam County Superior Court)
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Specialized Calendars
Skamania County has moved the pro se motion matters to a calendar separate from the regular motion calendar.
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Calendars are completed much more timely.
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Hearings by Email
Implemented an e-Mitigation program which reduces court time, clerk time, judge time. This is a unique program which allows for all communication between violator and court (after the initial request for a mitigation hearing) to be done via e-mail. (Spokane County District Court)
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Spokane County District Court implemented an "Extra Docket" tracking system that allows for Judges who have had their jury trial fold, or for some other reason are available, to do a docket for other judicial officers that are gone or are busy, instead of calling in a pro-tem.
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Pro-tem fees are only $100 per docket, but every bit adds up. Through June, we have had 90 extra dockets taken care of by Judges that volunteered.
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Adoption of Individual Calendaring
Many superior courts have adopted individual calendaring for civil cases. This method assigns a case to a judge at the time of filing and the assigned judge hears all hearings for the case. This reduces the need for several judges to be familiar with the facts of the case. (Whatcom, King, Pierce, Thurston, Spokane, Clallam, etc.)
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Judicial time is saved.
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Individual Civil Calendars
The shift from a Civil Master Calendar system to Individual Calendaring several years ago has contributed to much more effective system of case and calendar management. Each Judge in the Civil rotation has a share of the civil caseload. Each is responsible for managing the cases assigned to them. In turn, each judge has a direct interest in resolving all cases assigned to their respective caseload. (Thurston County Superior Court)
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Early assignment of cases to the trial judge provides for improved case management. It also makes it easier for attorneys to manage their caseload. They know early in the process whom the case is assigned and what the expectations will be regarding case scheduling.
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Calendar Efficiencies
King County Superior Court has developed several calendar efficiencies such as an accelerated sentencing calendar, an SRA modification calendar, and separate family law trial by affidavit calendar. The court also made changes to criminal case management procedures and protocols with an emphasis on early pleas.
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Mandatory Mediation
Whatcom County Superior Court has adopted mandatory mediation for all domestic cases.
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The number of contested domestic cases has been reduced by two-thirds.
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Use of Technology
Many courts are increasing their presence on the Internet to increase citizen access to court information.
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Kitsap County Clerk estimates he has saved 0.3 FTE by increasing the content on his office's web page.
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Use of Technology
Automated minute sheet program – our IT department developed an ACCESS program that extracts criminal calendar case information from SCOMIS and prints it in minute sheet forms which eliminated staff having to hand write information. (Cowlitz County Clerk)
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This was a huge time-savings as we have over 16,000 criminal hearings per year which would compute to about 266 hours of staff time per year.
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Use of Technology
Cowlitz County Clerk has developed many macros and templates with automatic pop up windows that pre-fill the data into the proper fields.
Cowlitz County Clerk has developed an excel spreadsheet that automatically puts data from one sheet into a criminal trial notice format and pre calculates the number of days from the arraignment date to trial date.
Cowlitz County Clerk has placed many common questions, free checklists and forms, schedules and even our daily jury reporting information onto our clerk’s office web site. We also have a link to the statewide search engine for a superior court case that AOC developed which allows a lot of people who just need to know if a case is filed in our court to look it up for themselves.
Cowlitz County Clerk has been able to utilize our document posting or indexing clerks in the courtroom on jury trials or longer non-jury hearings once we got computers at their stations with SCOMIS and other programs on it. This way we free up other clerks to wait on the public or go in on other hearings and still are able to get the minutes done for the trial and documents posted to SCOMIS too.
Cowlitz County Clerk is e-mailing some of our calendars to attorneys, county departments and others who need them instead of making multiple copies and delivering them like we used to.
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It saves a few minutes here and there on typing up warrants of arrest, warrants of commitment, trial notices.
This saves at least three-five minutes per trial notice typed.
This saves on phone calls and gives good customer service.
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Use of Technology
The Cowlitz County Clerk utilizes many voice mail options on the main phone line, giving some options with a lot of detail i.e. how to get a passport, office hours, location which in turn eliminates the need for staff to answer a lot of phone calls on the same questions.
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Automated Judgment and Sentencing Project
Thurston County Superior Court is working with the Prosecuting Attorney and the Administrative Office of the Courts to develop and implement, on a pilot basis, an automated Judgment and Sentencing system that has the look and feel of the current manual process with near instant update of the JIS and other Criminal Justice systems.
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Systemic benefits anticipated from this project include improved data management and transmission, significant improvement in file management and records up-date, and significant reductions in data entry errors.
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Interpreter Costs
Lakewood Municipal Court controls interpreter costs by setting cases for individuals who need an interpreter at the end of the morning or afternoon calendar so that any people who show up early but need an interpreter can be set over to later in the day when an interpreter will be there anyway.
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Interpreter Costs
Kent Municipal Court has separate criminal and infraction interpreter calendars (although if a defendant has a criminal charge with a companion infraction, we try to track those together).
Kent Municipal Court now schedules interpreters in-house instead of using an agency (except when needed) to save on overall interpreter costs.
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The Court went to interpreter calendars in an effort to reduce overall interpreter costs.
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Interpreter Coordination
King County Superior Court brought interpreter services in-house thereby improving coordination and services.
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Limits on Probation
Lakewood Municipal Court limits probation to the cases that need it most (DUI and DV assault) leaving other cases to administrative monitoring.
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Bail Forfeitable Offenses
Many courts have designated certain criminal offenses as bail forfeitable.
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If a case is bail forfeited, this saves the courts judicial and staff time, saves public defender and prosecution time, and reduces jail costs.
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Use of Volunteers
Four volunteers from our Retired Seniors Volunteer Program to prepare old files for archiving. (Cowlitz County Clerk)
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CASA Program
This is the single most important volunteer program operated by the Superior Court. The volunteer services provided by Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA’s) are vital to the interests of the Dependency Court. The cost avoidance generated by this program is immense. The services to the Court are critical to protecting the interest of dependent children through the judicial process. Thousands of hours are donated to the Court and thus the children each year.
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This program supported by volunteers. There are currently 35 Volunteers donating approximately 2700 hours of their time each year to provide services to 145 dependent children. If these services had been provided by a private pay Guardian ad Litem, it would have cost nearly $230,000 in 2003.
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Records Management
When GR 22 went into effect, the Cowlitz County Clerk had to develop a way to keep the confidential documents separate from the public file, she decided on a separate “red file folder”. The Clerk uses the TAB colored numbering system and the file clerk had to make up a folder each time by using the colored number stickers. The Clerk decided to go ahead a purchase preprinted red file folders, which has saved a lot of time.
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Customer Service
The Cowlitz County Clerk developed a separate self-serve document conforming station in our office for attorneys and their runners who do not want to wait in line but only need to leave an original document for filing and then conform their copies.
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Out-Sourcing Time Pay Management
Kent Municipal Court switched collection agencies and signed on with Alliance One. In part this was because Alliance One was set up to manage time-pay agreements. All time payment agreements are now managed through Alliance One instead of in-house.
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Expedited In Custody Hearings
A defendant held in custody on bail following arraignment has his/her pre-trial hearing two days after arraignment. This allows prompt resolution of those cases that do not go to trial, and allows quicker trial sets for those that are. (Kent Municipal Court)
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In Custody Public Defense Appointments
To avoid delays, to make sure defendants have counsel, and to cut down on public defense screener expenses, all in-custody defendants in pre-trial status are represented by counsel. At in-custody arraignments, the public defender assist all defendants in addressing issues of bail and conditions of release. If bail is set and a defendant is unable to post, he/she is automatically appointed counsel at the pre-trial hearing unless they have retained private counsel. (Kent Municipal Court)
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Infraction Pre-Hearing Conferences
Pursuant to IRLJ 2.6 and KMC-IRLJ 2.6, all requests for contested hearings are first set for a pre-hearing conference. This actually results in an overall decrease in the total number of calendars required to address contested infractions. (Kent Municipal Court)
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Decision on Written Statements
Pursuant to IRLJ 3.5 and KMC-IRLJ 3.5 a defendant requesting either a mitigation or contested hearing may seek a decision on written statement thus avoiding an in-person hearing. (Kent Municipal Court)
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Specialized Dockets
Established a specialized DUI arraignment docket to provide for pre trial conditions, monitoring capability for DUI offenders, as a way to increase safety of community. (Spokane County District Court)
Established an Arraignment Docket to expedite case resolution for DWLS 3rd cases (prior to recent Supreme Court decision) at arraignment. (Spokane County District Court)
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Increased Revenue
Took advantage of various legislative enactments allowing for an increase in DUI Cost recovery, administrative and warrant fees to assist state and local government and to make defendants more accountable for the costs of their arrest. (Spokane County District Court)
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EFFICIENCY
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IMPACT/COST SAVINGS
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The courts' long-term goal is the creation of a united substance abuse and mental illness court. This court would allow for better control and service to the 30 percent of substance abusers who are also identified as having mental health issues and the 70 percent of mental health court users identified as having substance abuse problems. Currently the three courts are providing wireless laptops to each of the three specialty courts to enable access to databases cross-jurisdictionally and streamline information exchange among the three courts. (King County Superior Court, Seattle Municipal Court, King County District Court)
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DUI Court (Clallam County District Court)
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The Superior Court's Drug Court facilitator also facilitates the District Court's DUI Court.
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Drug Court
(various superior courts)
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In the first year of Cowlitz County's Juvenile Drug Court, the average number of detention days served per year was reduced by between 41 percent and 100 percent. At a cost of $123 per day, the savings are substantial. Recidivism reductions have not yet been measured.
A 2002 study of drug courts conducted by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that drug courts nationally and in Washington state reduce recidivism by about 13 percent. The drug courts studied in Washington generated $1.74 in benefits for each dollar of costs.
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Drug Court
Thurston County has operated a Drug Court for over five years. This program has been extremely productive in reducing recidivism in our justice system. It has recently been expanded through the assistance of Federal Grants to add new treatment modalities to deal with the root causes of additive behaviors.
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Systemic savings from the Drug Court program have been significant. Specialty courts tend to be more expensive to operate for the Court, but when those costs are contrasted to the systemic benefits and savings derived from their operation, real saving are realized. Thurston County estimates that total system savings since the program was implemented in 1998 exceed $1 million.
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Family Treatment Court
These programs operate in our Unified Family Court are designed to (1) achieve re-unification of dependent child with their families and (2) to restore visitation or custody to a non-custodial parent in dissolution actions, using the Drug Court model. (Thurston County Superior Court)
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(1) The dependency Treatment Court Program was created with the assistance of an $11,000 grant administered by BHR. The program has had 56 participants, 28 children have been re-united with their biological parents, and 26 have graduated from the program.
(2) The program operated in conjunction with dissolution actions has “graduated” 11 families, to date. This program has been developed and implemented without any additional funding.
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Re-licensing programs
Encouraged and supported the creation of a Relicensing Program and its interface with neighboring counties. (Spokane District Court)
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Saves an estimated $100,000 per year in jail costs.
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Coordination of issuance of domestic violence protection orders. Resolution of conflicting orders issued in multiple cases in multiple courts. (Kitsap County courts)
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Warrant adjudication project (South King County courts)
The Kent Municipal Court is one of the courts participating in the Warrants Pilot Program pursuant to RCW 2.56.160 and 3.50.020. If a defendant appears in a participating court and it is determined that he/she has a warrant ordered or issued in another participating court, the court is allowed to quash certain warrants and reschedule the defendant for a new hearing in the issuing court.
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Saves officer transport time and reduced in-custody costs of released defendants.
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Domestic Violence Court (Clark County Superior and District Court)
District court judges are appointed as court commissioners and the County Clerk deputized several of the District Court staff as superior court clerks. All civil protection orders for domestic violence and harassment are heard by district court judges sitting as commissioners. Anti-harassment orders also heard at the same time so people get their petitions heard daily.
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This helps prevent conflicting orders, uniformity with the 4th degree assault cases that they handle.
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Mental Health Court (Clark County District Court)
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In a study, written by Portland State researcher Heidi Herinckx, 368 mentally ill defendants were studied and the study concluded that graduates of mental health court are four times less likely to re-offend than those who do not make it through the program.
The year prior to entering mental health court, the 368 people were arrested a total of 713 times. One year after they ended mental health court, 199 people (54 percent) had no new arrests. The remaining 169 people had been arrested a total of 178 times. Of the 368 people, the percentage with three or more arrests dropped from 26 percent to three percent. Probation violations dropped by 62 percent.
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Mental Health Court (King County District Court)
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An evaluation conducted by Washington State University indicates the Mental Health Court reduces recidivism (75.9 percent decrease in the number of offenses committed). The Mental Health Court also reduces the occurrence of violent criminal activity (87.9 percent decrease in the percentage of violent offenses committed by its graduates). The Mental Health Court exhibited a 90.8 percent reduction of jail time by its graduates.
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Unified Family Court (Thurston County Superior Court, King County Superior Court, Snohomish County Superior Court, Clallam County Superior Court))
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Evaluation due from AOC in December 2004.
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Child Care in Courthouse (Spokane County & Regional Justice Center, King County)
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The Okanogan County Trial Court Coordination Council is undertaking a remodeling project as a solution to the non-secure transport of in-custody defendants through the Okanogan County courthouse. This will allow Okanogan County Corrections staff to transport defendants into a secure courtroom directly from the jail.
A secondary purpose of the courtroom is to conduct hearings over the Internet. This will be accomplished by using WebCams that will enable judges, defendants, and court personnel to interact from remote locations. The Okanogan County Jail has contracts for housing inmates with several jurisdictions located in Western Washington. A pilot project will conduct intermediary type hearings between the inmates in the Okanogan County Jail and the judge located in the jurisdiction where the case is pending.
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The Kitsap trial courts are undertaking a project to provide the means to scan domestic violence full orders issued by all levels of courts in Kitsap County onto an existing web site, thereby allowing parties to review the orders in their entirety 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Kitsap County District Court web site will provide a secured location accessible by password to law enforcement, the prosecutor’s office, the courts, and victims' advocacy agencies. The Kitsap County District Court will coordinate the collection, scanning and maintenance of the information and the web access.
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Three major courts are located within three blocks of one another in downtown Seattle: Seattle Municipal Court, King County Western District (Seattle) Court, and King County Superior Court (along with the Department of Judicial Administration, also known as the King County Superior Court Clerk). The King County Trial Court Coordination Council has undertaken an initiative to review and improve customer services provided by these three King County area courts. The Council believes that the courts’ customers will have better experiences when there is standardized, consistent, useful, easy-to-understand information at all points of initial customer contact. Standard information will give the courts a consistent capacity to redirect customers to the correct court.
Each of the three courts will review the logistical and other information provided for its customers (for example, driving/bus directions, parking information, hours of operation). Working with a program manager for the project, the courts will develop basic logistical information plus information about the services and operation of the courts. This standardized information will be used in each court, built from the best of what each court now provides. This initiative is a preliminary step toward developing materials for customers in support of the courts’ collective intent to explore the development of a docent program. This initiative is aligned with the recent initiative by the Public Trust and Confidence Subcommittee of the Board for Judicial Information (BJA) related to developing model docent programs.
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Administrative Coordination Activities
Thurston County has several inter-agency committees and work groups established to address justice system issues that impact multiple system participants. These include: Jail Population Management Committee, Law and Justice Community of Interest Information Technology Subcommittee, Justice Project Oversight Committee, Troubleshooters Committee, Self-represented Parties Workgroup, Dependency Proceedings Workgroup, Jail Health/MIO Workgroup, Guardianship Roundtable, and Domestic Violence Workgroup.
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These committees, task forces and work groups provide forums where justice system member agencies can identify operational or policy issues for discussion and action necessary to solve systemic operating problems or problems resulting as unintended consequences of changes in procedures or processes implemented in other agencies.
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Jail Alternatives
All jail sentences except mandatory are given Electronic Home Monitoring using a local company (not the County Jail). (Mount Vernon Municipal Court)
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If indigency has been determined, the City pays the bill of $13.40 per day. If indigency has not been determined, the company screens and determines ability to pay. This alleviates the $70 per day charge from the County Jail. This saves room in the jail for felons and more serious criminals. ONE CLIENT (90 days imposed) has saved the City $5,094.00.
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Jail Alternatives
Use of work crews, community service, electronic home monitoring to keep jail costs down. City uses Wapato jail which has a lower per day cost for incarcerating individuals. (Lakewood Municipal Court)
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Juvenile Alternatives
Yakima County Juvenile Department is moving towards the Juvenile Alternatives Program which is a best practice in terms of efficiencies and effectiveness in working with youthful offenders.
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By expanding the use of alternatives, it is hoped that one or two living units can be closed at a savings of $250,000 to $500,000.
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Jail Alternatives
Implemented a 24-hour DUI Jail Alternative Program with local service groups. Judges were a local force in encouraging and implementing jail alternatives including EHM, GPS, etc. Working with a Jail Population Committee to institute Day Reporting. (Spokane District Court)
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Juvenile Video Arraignment
Thurston County Juvenile Court has operated in conjunction with Maple Lane, a video arraignment program for the past two years. Since the introduction of this application, the Court has experienced a significant reduction in the number of in-custody offenses occurring at Maple Lane. This has had a positive impact on both the Court and the staff from Maple Lane.
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The savings associated with this program have primarily benefited the State agency. The Court has benefited from a significant reduction in the numbers of matters filed as a result of in-custody offenses occurring at the Maple Lane facility.
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Video Conferencing
Juvenile first appearances and prison inmate cases from Clallam Bay Correctional Center are heard via video conferencing. (Clallam County Superior Court)
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Eliminates detention/prison transportation costs. Eliminates need for travel by attorneys, families and court staff.
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Video Conferencing
Conduct hearings with persons in custody via video conference. The hearings that are held this way are bail hearings, first appearances, pre-trial hearings, and the like. We obviously do not conduct trials or guilty pleas and sentences over the phone. (Bainbridge Island Municipal Court)
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This system has resulted in great savings for the police department. Before we conducted these hearings this way, a police officer had to drive to Port Orchard to pick up the defendant, bring him to court, and return him, all for a brief hearing. The officer spent four to five hours on the road.
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Video Conferencing
Skamania County Superior Court hears in-custody arraignments via video conferencing.
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This provides savings for the Sheriff's Office.
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Video Conferencing
All in-custody hearings, except for testimonial motions and trials, are heard by video (unless an in-person hearing is requested per CrRLJ 3.4(d) and KMC-CrRLJ 3.4(d)). (Kent Municipal Court)
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This eliminates most transports to the court for hearings avoiding the attendant security issues such transports present. The Kent Correctional Facility and Police Department have saved substantial manpower hours that would otherwise be spent in handling such transports.
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Controlling Public Defender Costs
Lakewood Municipal Court sets all in-custody public defender cases on a single calendar to control public defender costs.
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Warrant Adjudication
Spokane County District Court conducted two Warrant Fests in recent years, allowing for recall of warrants on routine cases.
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Saved approximately $100,000 each year in jail and booking fees. Receipt of fines and other court costs is an added benefit to having these offenders back in good graces with the court system.
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