Information on recent and upcoming events and new publications is listed under each topic heading. Please contact us with other news items.

General Information

Diversity

• The National Campaign to Ensure the Racial and Ethnic Fairness of America's State Courts has developed a website and interactive database of state efforts and promising practices drawn from the experiences of individual jurisdictions from across the country.
  
  

Emergency Management & Security

• The National Center for State Courts, Continuity of Court Operations project has developed a COOP Planning Guide, now available online at www.ncsconline.org/coop. A curriculum designed to help judges and other court officials develop and practice a continuity of operations (COOP) plan is being developed into a WebCT course available in 2008.
• Last year the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the National Sheriff’s Association convened a National Summit on Court Safety and Security and a Follow-up Meeting to identify strategies to improve judicial branch security. The meetings, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, brought together over 125 individuals from local, state, and federal jurisdictions and included representatives from all branches of government and a variety of court, legal, and law enforcement organizations and associations. A National Strategic Plan for Judicial Branch Security summarizes eight strategies to improve court security that emerged from the meetings.
• American University recently completed a guideline on court emergency preparedness: Planning for Emergencies: Immediate Events and Their Aftermath—A Guideline for Local Courts. The Guideline, developed under the sponsorship of the State Justice Institute (SJI), is designed as a “how to” guide for trial courts—particularly those in rural areas—that are beginning the process of developing emergency preparedness and response plans.
  

Family & Juvenile Justice

Pro Se/Pro Bono

• New resources added for landlord/tenant disputes. See Additional Resources.
  

Sentencing Alternatives

• Casey, Pamela M., David B. Rottman, and Chantal G. Bromage. A Problem-Solving Justice Toolkit, March 31, 2007.( This Toolkit offers a blueprint for using the problem-solving approach, a form of differentiated case management for cases involving recurring contacts with the justice system due to underlying medical and social problems.)