NCJ Number
154561
Journal
Community Corrections Report on Law and Corrections Practice Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Dated: (March/April 1995) Pages: 5-6,8
Date Published
1995
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article identifies the elements of successful court caseflow management and presents guidelines for improving caseflow management in juvenile courts.
Abstract
In juvenile courts, special attention must be given to the following aspects of caseflow management: the need for timely police reports, prioritized court proceedings for detained juveniles, prompt intake and front-end prosecutor decisionmaking and petition preparation, timely designation of defense counsel, judicial hearings that occur when scheduled, short time-frame preparation of predisposition reports, immediate postdispositional intervention by probation officers or other agency staff, speedy dispatch of a youth to a judicially ordered postdispositional setting, and prompt hearings on probation violations. Few juvenile justice systems score well on all these measures. Eight elements that facilitate successful caseflow management are leadership and commitment, compliance with State and local time processing guidelines, the obtaining of accurate information in a timely manner, communications, caseflow management procedures, education and training, mechanisms for accountability, and backlog reduction/inventory control. A number of procedures have been used to implement various elements of successful caseflow management. One is to hold regular meetings of key agency actors, and another is to move toward resolving the case as early as possible. Court culture should actively discourage the postponement of scheduled hearings. Courts should schedule only the number of cases that available judges or referees can dispose of on a given day. Pilot projects should address particular caseflow management shortcomings. 6 footnotes