NLADA will provide technical assistance to the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC)) and their research partner to develop a data driven communication strategy to inform policy decisions for the improvement of indigent defense in this state. A key strategic component is the Smart Defense Portal, a highly accessible communication system informing jurisdictions of their performance on multiple quality indicators, and keeping policymakers apprised of “the state of indigent defense” in Texas.
The TIDC has successfully employed an evidence-based communications strategy to impact policy. In the last 13 years, state indigent defense expenditures have increased 150%, cases paid has risen nearly 80%, and the attorney appointment rates has increased from 25% to 42% statewide. In addition, the original seven public defender offices has grown to 23 offices in 170 counties as jurisdictions have sought ways to strengthen local systems. With its Smart Defense project, TIDC will expand the ability of Texas defenders to impact policy to improve the quality of and support for public defense.
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During this reporting period, NLADA has advised Smart Defense Texas on which indigent defense metrics to collect and how to present them in the online portal it is developing to collect and display data on the indigent defense systems in all of the state’s 254 counties. The Smart Defense Texas team is made up of long-time researcher-practitioner partners, so they need relatively less guidance from NLADA on effectively communicating with one another than other Smart Defense sites need.
In February, NLADA presented with the Smart Defense Texas team as part of its virtual meeting of national advisors, who also contributed ideas for the portal. NLADA played a similar role at two meetings in April: a statewide criminal justice planners meeting in Houston and the Smart Defense Texas state advisors meeting in Austin. At these meetings, NLADA has provided the national context for the Smart Defense Initiative (explaining the importance of each site’s successful implementation and research for improving criminal justice systems around the country) in order to gain additional support from local stakeholders.
The state advisors meeting was part of a two-day site visit to Austin in April. NLADA and NCJA met with the Smart Defense Texas researchers and practitioners at the Texas Indigent Defense Commission to check in on the project and prepare for the meeting. The court administrators, county officials, judges, and academics at the meeting were all supportive of the idea of collecting data to improve Texas’ indigent defense systems; most of group’s conversation focused on the particulars of the framework that the Smart Defense Texas team had developed for its indicators of quality indigent defense (that is, what data reporting should be asked of counties and how should they be “graded” on the portal); the Smart Defense Texas team has since revised its framework in light of this feedback. During the rest of the site visit, NLADA and NCJA met with Travis County Courts technology staff to learn more about the data collection capacity of Texas counties’ indigent defense systems, which is excellent in Travis, but very limited elsewhere; the Travis County tech team members are also state advisors for their project and a pilot site for the portal.
On May 23, Smart Defense Texas attended the Smart Defense Inter-Site Summit. At the Summit, the Texas team presented their revised online portal framework to the other sites and DOJ officials. A Texas practitioner shared his insight during a messaging exercise, explaining to the other sites how messaging is fundamental to how he designs action research projects. One of the members of the Texas research team commented on how useful the Summit was for learning about each of the other sites’ projects.
Smart Defense Texas was showcased at NLADA’s summer meeting of the American Council of Chief Defenders in June.
During this reporting period, Smart Defense Texas completed an initial draft of broad-reaching metrics it plans to collect and display in an online portal that reports on the indigent defense systems in all of the state’s 254 counties. Research partner Texas A&M began beta-testing the metrics with a group of Texas’ largest counties to assess how feasible the metrics are to collect and transmit to the portal.
In November, the Smart Defense team debuted the draft metrics to its group of national indigent defense leaders from around the country. It also sought their feedback on the direction on the eventual look and feel of the online portal. Designers are beginning to move forward with their work. NLADA conducted ongoing communication and planning through email and phone contact.
During this reporting period , several of the state’s largest counties began beta-testing the process of collecting and supplying data being requested to populate the Smart Defense ACT Smart data portal; refinement of the portal’s indicators continued; and design of the website’s functionality moved forward. Also during this period, a key team member left but was quickly replaced and work remained on track.
During this reporting period, the infrastructure for the quality indicator system was completed as was the system’s capability for online reporting. Currently the team is still experiencing some challenges related to receiving data from some Texas jurisdictions, however outreach brainstorming has been conducted and it is hoped that with additional hands on support, more jurisdictions will come on board in the near future rather than be identified as outliers.
The original data collection plan was to identify and send guidance to large partner jurisdictions and receive feedback but it became clear in the pretesting phase that PPRI would be better suited to conduct initial queries and to identify the feasibility of various indicators for implementation.
The program partners have remained in close communication with pilot counties and are currently in the process of collecting test data sets from Travis, Bexar, and Tarrant counties as well as additional planning with Harris, Bell, and El Paso counties.
During this reporting period, the NLADA/NCJA TTA team held regular check in calls with Innovative Solutions grantee, the Texas A&M Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI), and its practitioner project team from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) and the American Bar Association (ABA), to provide advice, feedback and encouragement for project progress.
In this reporting period, PPRI continued to build out its indigent defense web portal’s dashboard and add state and county level data elements relating to the portal’s key comparative measures: access to counsel, competence, and trust in the system. The web portal will provide easily accessible data, key standards and educational information about indigent defense in each of the state’s 254 counties. After conducting a beta test involving requests to several of the state’s largest counties for the data elements PPRI hoped to collect regularly from all 254 counties, PPRI concluded it will be impossible to get desired data from all 254 counties due to wide variation in local data system capacity. It has identified counties that will be able to produce all requested data elements on an ongoing basis, and will work with those jurisdictions to refine procedures for all counties to begin to report as their data systems mature. TIDC will provide the state data the portal incorporates. Meanwhile, the ABA team member completed her work providing links to key national standards that will be integrated into the portal. The project team is planning to complete its work in September 2018, and will hold meetings of its state and national advisory groups to help launch the project in September 2018.
During this reporting period the NLADA/NCJA training and technical assistance (TTA) team held its final check-in call with Innovative Solutions grantee, Texas A&M Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI), and its practitioner partner, the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC), to provide advice, feedback and encouragement for project progress. Also during this reporting period, the NLADA/NCJA TTA team participated in meetings with advisory groups for the project. The central grant deliverable is a new indigent defense web portal, which makes available key state and county level data elements relating to access to counsel, competence, and trust in the system. The web portal is designed to provide easily accessible data, key standards and educational information about indigent defense in each of the state’s 254 counties. On September 17, the TTA team joined a conference call of the project team’s National Advisory Group. And on September 19, the TTA Team attended the debut of the portal to the State Advisory Group in Austin, TX. At both meetings, input was sought on any recommendations for PPRI to consider as it assumes responsibility for maintaining the portal beyond the support of grant funding. National Advisory Group members include:
• Nancy Bennett, Deputy Chief Counsel, Committee for Public Counsel Services, Boston, MA
• Andrew Davies, Director of Research, New York State Office of Indigent Legal Services
• Daniel Goyette, Chief Public Defender, Louisville Metro Public Defender’s Office
• Margaret Ledyard, Policy Analyst, Travis County, Texas Criminal Courts
• Paul Levy, General Counsel, Oregon Public Defender System
• Ernie Lewis, Executive Director, National Association for Public Defense
• Lauren Lucas, Assistant Professor of Law, Georgia State University
• Dennis Keefe, Adjunct Professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Pamela Metzger, Director of the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center and Professor of Law, Southern Methodist University
• Janet Moore, Associate Professor, University of Cincinnati College of Law
State Advisory Group members include :
Alex Bunin Chief Public Defender Haris County Public Defender Office
Andrea Marsh Lecturer and Director, Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program The University of Texas School of Law
Angela Garcia Judicial Information Manager Office of Court Administration
Arindam Ghosh Senior Data Analyst Bexar County Judicial Services
Asma Vahoara Criminal Justice Research Coordinator Bexar County Judicial Services
Barbara Murphy Manager, Criminal Court Support Tarrant County Criminal Courts
William Cox First Assistant Public Defender El Paso County Public Defender
Chris Wells Assistant Court Administrator Harris County District Courts
Daniel Mangoubi Data Analyst Lubbock Private Defenders Office
Dean Stanzione Director of Court Administration Lubbock County Office of Court Administration
Emily Gerrick Senior Staff Attorney Texas Fair Defense Project
J. Greg Shugart Criminal Courts Adminstrator Tarrant County District Courts
Jack Cutrone Senior Policy Advisor NCJA
Jennifer Laurin Professor University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Jennifer Tallon Principal Research Associate Center for Court Innovation
Jim Bethke Executive Director Lubbock Private Defenders Office
John Dahill Executive Director Texas Conference of Urban Counties
Judge Fancy Jezek Judge Bell County District Court
Karen Welborn Senior Research Analyst Harris County Criminal Courts at Law
Linda Ingraham Department Director Bell County Pretrial Services
Marea Beeman Director, Research Initiatives National Legal Aid & Defender Association
Mark Erwin Technology Manager Travis County Court System
Meg Ledyard Business Analyst Travis County Criminal Courts
Michael DeForke Management Analyst Harris County District Courts
Mike Lozito Director of Judicial Services Bexar County Judicial Services
Scott Griffith Director, Research and Court Services Office of Court Administration
Shannon Cavasos Executive Assistant Lubbock Private Defenders Office
Troy Pickett Resource Manager Texas Conference of Urban Counties
Yamilex Pena Community Partnerships AmeriCorps VISTA Lubbock Private Defenders Office
Heather Caspers Research Associate PPRI
Dottie Carmichael Research Scientist PPRI
Terry Williams Associate Research Specialist PPRI
Edwin Colfax Grant Program Manager TIDC
Scott Ehlers Policy Analyst TIDC
Geoff Burkhart Executive Director TIDC
Claire Buetrow Policy Analyst TIDC
The Texas project team wrapped up its grant work September 30, 2018, and finalized its close out report in December 2018. NLADA remained in touch with the project team during this period. When asked what the key project takeaways were, PPRI offered three. First, in states like Texas with 254 counties and decentralized indigent defense delivery systems, a great deal of information about performance remains obscured from public view in local data systems. The “ACT Smart” web portal offers a way to bring this data into the public view to help identify model strategies and reform priorities. Second, without centralized data structure or definitions, there is a great deal of complexity underlying each county’s reporting and queried results. It is impossible to fully standardize results, though it is still worth trying to get as close as possible. Third, the effort to extract standardized measures from diverse county indigent defense offers jurisdictions good feedback on data quality (i.e., missing or low-quality variables) and completeness (i.e., where they are lacking information to track their own indigent defense performance). The project provides local stakeholders with a check on their information systems.
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