Note:
This awardee has received supplemental funding. This award detail page includes information about both the original award and supplemental awards.
Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2011, $500,000)
The National Initiatives: Improving Criminal Courts Program is funded under the Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program (Byrne Competitive Program), the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program, and the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program. Authorized by Pub. L. No. 112-10, div. B, secs. 1101-1104 and (Pub. L. No. 111-117, 123 Stat. 3034, 3134, the Byrne Competitive Program, among other purposes, helps communities improve the functioning and capacity of state and local criminal justice systems and provides for national support efforts including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address local needs.
The National Initiatives: Improving Criminal Courts Program, administered by the Office of Justice Programs' Bureau of Justice Assistance, helps improve criminal justice systems. This program supports funding for national, state, local, and tribal programs/efforts, such as training and technical assistance, to address the needs of state and local justice systems and communities. The FY 2011 program will focus on funding efforts in five major categories.
The National Judicial College (NJC) will utilize their funds to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system through education and technical assistance for judges and other court service professionals. Specifically, NJC will conduct the following activities: 1. Increase the cadre of faculty available to deliver high quality judicial education by planning, conducting and evaluating two faculty development workshops (in-person education and distance-learning (web-based) education); 2. Provide ongoing online faculty development through quarterly webinars; 3. Conduct curriculum development through a process of needs assessments, national expert focus groups, ongoing collaboration with allied organizations, and continuous course evaluation to ensure that national education opportunities are targeted to address the most current and emergent needs of the judiciary; 4. Provide technical assistance to judges and court service professionals on topics related to the improvement of the criminal justice system; 5. Provide online national judicial education by offering 24 educational webinars on topics designed to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system; 6. Provide two state and/or regional judicial education programs in collaboration with state judicial education entities; 7. Provide financial assistance to judges for continuing judicial education at NJC courses; and 8. Measure the outcomes of all project training and technical assistance through evaluation. CA/NCF