The Center for Court Innovation has produced a series of tours to explain its work and the activities of some its demonstration projects.

Brooklyn Treatment Court System
The Brooklyn Treatment Court information system was designed to provide Court staff -- judge, attorneys, case managers, researchers and others -- with the tools they need to handle a large number of cases effectively and efficiently. In particular, the Court uses the Treatment Application to increase the standard of accountability at the Court and to expand the information available to court players about participants and their progress in treatment. Four principles governed the design of the Treatment Application: Better information; increased accountability; new partnerships; and evaluation.
This system was developed by the New York State Unified Court System and the Center for Court Innovation.
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Juvenile Treatment Court
The Harlem Juvenile Intervention Court is a community-based juvenile drug court that seeks to link delinquent youth to drug treatment and other services such as counseling, tutoring and positive social activities. The goal is to give young people the structure and support they need to avoid further criminal behavior.

The Juvenile Intervention Court Application - developed by the court system's independent research and development arm, the Center for Court Innovation, with support from the State Justice Institute - is a computer software program that uses Intranet technology to create an electronic workplace for the diverse group of players who participate in a juvenile drug court. Addressing the information challenges unique to a juvenile drug court, the technology enables judges, attorneys, probation officers, case managers and service providers to access information quickly and easily within the strict confidentiality guidelines of family court.

Like their adult counterparts, juvenile drug courts seek to use judicial authority to tackle the problems that people bring with them to court. In general, juvenile drug courts share many of the attributes of the adult drug court model: an expanded role for the judge, detailed assessment of each respondent, intensive case management, partnerships with community-based programs, graduated sanctions and rewards and strict accountability.

Sophisticated technology applications that have been successful for adult drug courts did not meet all the needs of a juvenile treatment setting. Adult treatment court applications are designed for a more static treatment plan and a more linear process of tracking compliance. Individually crafted plans, broad mandates across multiple programs and the developmental stage of the population require frequent changes in both the psychosocial assessments and the strengthening plans for juveniles in a treatment court. To be truly effective, a juvenile drug court technology application must facilitate communication between more partners - probation officers, school counselors, family members - while complying with a different, and more rigorous, set of confidentiality rules.

In developing technology for the Harlem Juvenile Intervention Court, technology planners sought to build a system that would yield stronger relationships between partner agencies and the court, better information, increased accountability, and improved measures of success.
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Buffalo Drug Court System
The Buffalo Drug Court wanted a computerized information system but didn't have a lot of money to build one. Using minimal resources, staff designed their own system using an off-the-shelf program. The result, built with Microsoft Access, is an effective, efficient tool that captures all data important to a medium-sized court, from screening information about participants to administrative information about the day's calendar. The screening information, including a social service needs assessment, helps the court make informed decisions about treatment and adjudication. The Drug Court Data Management Information System (DCDMIS) also allows users, such as case managers, the judge, assistant district attorneys, defense attorneys, and treatment providers, to obtain information quickly by making specific queries -- for instance: How many participants are in treatment? How many have dropped out? What's the status of a particular case? Who's coming to court today?

The DCDMIS was developed by Jose Ferrer and Hank Pirowski of the Buffalo City Court and the New York State Office of Court Administration. The system was built in conjunction with Anna Gray of the Jacksonville, Florida Drug Court. Support was received from the Drug Courts Program Office, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice and the OJP Drug Court Clearinghouse and Technical Assistance Project at American University.
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