September 2018
September is full of new beginnings: a new school year, new grant initiatives, and a new office for JPO! In her latest blog post , Director Kim Ball reflects on her two years at JPO and what she is excited about looking ahead.
 
"JPO is packing up and cleaning out, preparing for an office reconfiguration. We’ve grown and changed over the last two years and so have our needs.   We start this fall with the team I envisioned when I joined JPO. We have four divisions—Operations, Communications, Research, and Programs—and a team of 13 exceptional staff supported by six fantastic student associates. I’m so proud of the team we’ve put together."
You’re Invited: Twitter Chat on the #Right2Counsel in the Pretrial Movement
JPO and the Pretrial Justice Institute are hosting a Twitter chat using #right2counsel on September 12 at 2:00 p.m. EDT about the role public defenders play in the movement to improve pretrial justice. We invite you to join our chat, answer the questions we pose, ask your own, and engage with other participants from public defender organizations and offices, as well as community partners and other criminal justice stakeholders, to create a robust conversation on the topic of public defense in pretrial reform using #right2counsel .
National Suicide Prevention Month
September is National Suicide Prevention Month. This is of special relevance to drug courts, veterans courts, and other judicial programs that serve vulnerable populations. All month long, the National Drug Court Resource Center will promote prevention and awareness resources from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline . Get involved by donating, volunteering, or learning how to talk about suicide with someone who may be in crisis. If you or a loved one is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at:  1-800-273-8255. 
On the Road with the JDTC TTA Team

Most children are returning to school this week but the Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts Training and Technical Assistance (JDTC TTA) team has been teaching all summer long! This August, the team traveled to all corners of the country to provide professional development trainings on the Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Guidelines . At the beginning of the month, staff members Megan Ward and Matthew Collinson visited the juvenile drug treatment court of Orleans Parish and assisted court staff with establishing a structured risk and needs assessment policy, creating memorandum of understandings between team member agencies, and developing a strategy to increase family engagement, among other things. Also, Matt assisted with a training for courts hosted by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in Reno, Nevada. To close the month, Megan presented at the 2018 Court Improvement Program Cross Training Conference sponsored by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia . She provided an introduction to research-based practices and facilitated a discussion about realistic ways to implement those practices. The learning never stops for the JDTC TTA team!

The Importance of Early Entry of Counsel 

This August, Director Kim Ball presented on a panel with D. Ashley Pennington of the Public Defender for Charleston and Berkeley Counties and Geoff Burkhart , Executive Director of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission , at the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies ’ annual conference about counsel at first appearance. Right to Counsel (R2C) National Campaign consortium member the National Association of Counties was instrumental in helping plan, organize, and put on this presentation. T he panel’s main purpose was to inform the audience about the importance of early entry of counsel and the essential role it plays in ensuring pretrial liberty. Their session was attended by judges, state and federal pretrial services agencies, defense attorneys, and prosecutors, and the participants were particularly interested in pretrial detention research from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and learning about Alameda County’s Innovative Solutions in Public Defense Initiative .
To learn more about the session, research, and the Innovative Solutions in Public Defense Initiative, visit the R2C blog .


#JusticeAcrossAmerica

Our social media campaign, Justice Across America , is wrapping up soon! This is your last chance to tweet a criminal justice fact about any state in the nation.

Join the conversation on Twitter or Facebook by using the hashtag: #JusticeAcrossAmerica . The state with the most tweets will receive a shout out, so get tweeting!

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Visit the JPO blog to read weekly posts from our staff on issues ranging from right to counsel and juvenile justice to treatment courts.