speedy trial

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.

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.

The goal of this project is to examine the current state of academic research, identify emerging issues and existing gaps in that research, to help further general knowledge in the field, and to direct additional work by the grant team.

In-depth overview of of speedy trial issues, incorporating practice content/materials.