Strategies for Court Collaboration With Service Communities

• NCJ Number: 196945
• Date Published: November 2002
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Series: BJA Program Brief
• Agencies: BJA
• Publication Type: Instructional Material

Annotation

This report presents findings from an examination of various specialized "problem-solving courts," which have been established to address specific problems through service coordination as a core feature of their operation.

Abstract

This study was part of the work of the project entitled Models of Effective Court-Based Service Delivery for Children and Their Families. The project included field research in eight jurisdictions. The field research was supplemented with a literature review and a telephone survey of 50 courts. Although the analysis of the courts emphasizes that a single model of service coordination is inappropriate, this report describes nine promising components of an effective service coordination strategy. These components are an acknowledged court role in service coordination, judicial leadership, an active policy committee of stakeholders, case-level service coordinators, centralized access to service networks, active court monitoring of compliance with orders, routine collection and use of data, creative use of resources, and training and education related to service coordination. This report advises that although the theoretical and philosophical debate about the proper role of the court in service coordination should and does continue to be debated in scholarly articles, this should not overshadow efforts to identify areas of agreement on service coordination issues at the local jurisdictional level.