Justice for All

• Provide a 50-state survey of existing practices regarding Grand Jury Procedures, including those relating to disclosure of information from such processes.
• Identify model practices.
• Develop resources to inform relevant stakeholder groups about the survey results as well model practices.
• Examine levels of understanding, identify community concerns and Increase community awareness and understanding of the grand jury process.
January-June 2022: Developed the national state survey on grand jury practices.

NCSC personel will develop a national survey to state courts asking states to identify the status of diversion programs in the respective states. Follow-up work using these survey responses includes developing a series of court leadership briefs on jail and court diversion programs informed by these interviews. The leadership briefs will articulate guiding principles, essential elements, data requirements and descriptions of existing evidence- based programs across the nation.

Following up on products developed by the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness, NCSC will conduct interviews and focus groups to help inform nationwide efforts focusing on diversion of mental health cases.

Current research on brain and social development states that emerging adults are more like older adolescents than grown adults so this project aims to provide high quality training for legal professionals on the psychology, motivations, and what works best for achieving behavior change with emerging adults.
July-December 2022: NCSC continued development of multimedia training materials on emerging adults in the criminal justice system.

This research will examine young adult competency standards and how they play out in practice. This will include examining whether brain development is a consideration in the development of these policies and practices.
July-December 2022: Completed literature review on competence to stand trial for juveniles and emerging adults and began preparing a statement of the problem document. Conducted 10 interviews with individuals who oversee competency proceedings for juveniles and emerging adults to learn more about their remediation processes.

Recent research on brain development says that the most effective response to a young person’s behavior comes as close in time as possible to the behavior; however, delays in court processing have been documented for decades. When there is an extended period of time between an offense and a consequence, young people may not be able to connect the consequence to the event. The project is estimated to take 18 months to complete.

This is an academic research project that aims to uncover and document why misdemeanor defendants proceed without counsel. To understand the phenomena of misdemeanor defendants proceeding without counsel, researchers will observe the four county criminal courts in Orange County, Florida.

This is an academic research project that aims to uncover and document why misdemeanor defendants proceed without counsel. To understand the phenomena of misdemeanor defendants proceeding without counsel, researchers will observe the four county criminal courts in Osceola County, Florida.

TTA recipients will receive training, resources, and other similar assistance to enable impacted persons to file effective complaints when attorneys and/or judges fail to uphold their ethical obligations in connection with criminal cases.

The application seeks assistance with:
1. Training on attorney conducted voir dire (ACVD).
2. Share training across stakeholder groups to develop common values, goals, and identify key areas for consideration in utilizing ACVD.
3. Individual, peer-led stakeholder trainings for judges, court administrators, prosecutors, and defense lawyers on ACVD.