The Third Branch
PPAC subcommittees study planning, security
By Shelly Cern, PPAC Policy Analyst
The Supreme Court's Planning and Policy Advisory Committee (PPAC) continues to increase its communication with the judiciary following the plenary session at the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Judicial Conference. Efforts include the “micro” e-newsletter From the Front Lines and e-mail updates from the PPAC judicial representative, highlighting key items following a PPAC meeting. These quick bites of information are aimed at keeping the judiciary up to date on PPAC activities and key PPAC accomplishments in a more timely manner. Please contact your PPAC representative if you have questions or comments on a PPAC item featured in any of this correspondence.
PPAC Planning Subcommittee
The PPAC Planning Subcommittee continues its work on the 2012-14 Critical Issues Report to identify the court system's short-term priorities. Planning priorities for the Wisconsin court system for 2012-14 are court system funding, increasing public confidence, evidence-based practices, and access to justice (in no particular order). In the coming months, PPAC and the planning subcommittee, through the judicial representative to PPAC, will be asking for further information on these critical issues. PPAC will be looking for specific suggestions of initiatives, policies, procedures, budget items, education initiatives, legislation, administrative changes, or training that can become an objective or action item for each critical issue, regardless of perceived cost or feasibility. PPAC wants to know what the circuit court judges want the Supreme Court, the director of state courts and PPAC to do to address each issue.
PPAC Court Security Subcommittee
On Jan.11, the Supreme Court approved Rule Petition 11-03 – in the matter of repeal and recreation of SCR 70.38-70.39, relating to court security and facilities (see related story). PPAC will be working with the director of state courts to provide education and to implement the new data collection, reporting and other requirements included in the new rule. You can find the rule petition and related documents here.
Further information about PPAC, its subcommittees and initiatives can be found at here.
Effective Justice Strategies Subcommittee
The past several months have been very busy for members of the PPAC Effective Justice Strategies (EJS) subcommittee. In addition to working on the EJS report with the National Center for State Courts, (see related article), here are a few highlights of the group's other activities during the past quarter:
AIM Lessons Learned: On March 28, the EJS subcommittee will be sponsoring an AIM: Lessons Learned meeting at the State Bar of Wisconsin in Madison. Participants from the eight pilot sites will gather to share their lessons learned from the AIM project, develop ideas for moving forward and provide feedback to be used in developing future projects. Among the topics to be discussed are the future of the AIM database and the data contained within it; ideas for integrating AIM with COMPAS (see related article); continuing access to existing data; and other topics. Mary Kay Sergo and Jared Hoy of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections will join the meeting to give an overview of the COMPAS initiative and discuss future collaboration between pilot site participants and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
Specialty Courts Record-Keeping Committee: The Specialty Courts Record-Keeping Committee has worked for the last year to develop best practices for record-keeping, confidentiality and ex parte information in Wisconsin treatment courts. The final version of the Committee's report was approved and adapted by PPAC on November 10, 2011. A link to the Report can be found on the Court system Web site here.
Questions about PPAC and its subcommittees may be addressed to your PPAC representative or to Shelly Cern in the Office of Court Operations, (608) 266-8861 or michelle.cern@wicourts.gov. Questions about the EJS subcommittee may be directed to Shelly Fox in the Office of Court Operations at (608) 261-0684.