Nine Steps to an Information System

• NCJ Number: 94351
• Journal: Judges' Journal Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1984) Pages: 18-21,51
• Author(s): P X Murray
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 5 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The Justice Institute's nine-point plan to improve court case flow revolves around the organization of an 'umbrella' group consisting of key decisionmakers in the system, who would provide the necessary information to keep the cases flowing.

Abstract

Judges, district attorneys, public defenders, county supervisors, chief judges, a representative of court reporters, and other top people would form the umbrella group. This group would receive information necessary to understand the environment within which a case would proceed, the ability to predict how the case process would operate under any circumstance, and the information to allow it to control the case process. The basic nine-point plan mandates that useful information on the court's case process is collected, that information is presented to the umbrella group, that the group then organizes task forces to deal with problem areas, and then works toward meeting realistic goals with available resources. The first task is to identify and describe the content and sequence of necessary court events, with information collected from a trained group like the Justice Institute. The normal time interval between events would then be measured, enabling the umbrella group later to rate the system's performance and determine where it is failing. The third task is to determine the age of the invetory of cases in appropriate timespans and then identify the relationships of actors concerning necessary events and their preparations. The umbrella group can then be convened and a profile of the case process and its operations revealed. Step six is to organize task groups to work on identifiable problems, and step seven is to provide staff assistance to the task group. The umbrella group should then be given standards of performance and goals which can be reached with available resources. Finally, the results should be publicized and those involved recognized. A chart illustrates the interval analysis used.