THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
UPDATE ON THE ONLINE SCHEDULING SYSTEM .....
I think it goes without saying that Chief Judge Soto and Administrative Judge of the Criminal Court Sayfie have always gone out of their way to respond to our issues and concerns at the GJB. While we may not always like the answer, at least they are honest and forthright.
Both Judge Soto and Judge Sayfie responded to our concerns about the Judicial Assistants (JAs) who are less than responsive, as well as the implementation of a Criminal Court Online Scheduling System.
Here is what each Judge had to say:
As the one who often handles complaints about access to a judges calendar I would love an online system. I can certainly discuss it with the COC (this would be largely their show) and our IT team (CITES). I am guessing the big obstacle will be CJIS. And the fact that it is antiquated. And that we must still work through CJIS. Also - while Criminal is theoretically "efiling" the reality is that you, the attorney, are emailing your motions & pleadings to the COC, and the COC prints it out & then puts the paper in the paper file. The judges do not have any electronic access to your "efiled" motion. The system in civil was updated. As was the system in family. We are at the bottom of the list and while a CJIS overhaul has been in the works for over 5 years at least...I believe we will see it when we see a new courthouse. This is a matter of funding, and the county I presume, has not yet been convinced that our inefficient paper based & ancient non-web based computer system is wasting money. For what it is worth Chief Judge Soto & I have been in their faces about it regularly.
In any event, I will speak with CITES and see if there is something simple we can put in place in the meantime. And if there are "frequent flyers" among the JAs or judges who are limiting or denying access, rather than blog about it, please contact me with specific information. I promise you I will take care of it.
Nushin G. Sayfie, Circuit Court Judge
Administrative Judge, Criminal Division-------
Captain Justice,
Thank you for your email. Online scheduling is something we would like in all our courts. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints and ITD’s timeline for CJIS that may be easier said than done. The last meeting we had with the County a price tag of fifty million dollars to revamp CJIS with a web based solution (I’m not techy but I think that’s the lingo). ITD has been observing and studying each CJIS function to come up with a solution for over 2 years (33 municipalities in addition to all of the stakeholders ie corrections, pd, sao, rcc, probation, etc use CJIS).
Judge Sayfie and I have met with ITD on numerous occasion encouraging a new system, but as expressed above we have not made much progress. I will reach out my trial court administrator and our cites department to see if there is something we can do internally but that may be problematic since most of the setting is done by the clerk’s office.
Bertila Soto
Chief Judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit
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You want more funding for our criminal justice system? Two thoughts: first, in November, vote for the candidates that are more likely to provide money in the state budget for items like CJIS; second, sign the Petition called the Voting Restoration Amendment, aka "Say Yes To Second Chances" which can be found here.
So, there you have it. It’s all about the moolah and, as it always has been, the criminal justice system comes in dead last when it comes to the State and the County spending $$$$ for our little ole Gerstein Justice Building.
So, there you have it. It’s all about the moolah and, as it always has been, the criminal justice system comes in dead last when it comes to the State and the County spending $$$$ for our little ole Gerstein Justice Building.
CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com