Department: District Courts
Department Head/Elected Official: Richard Woods
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Grant
Project ID (if applicable): ARPA_AJS
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWDBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
title
Request by the District Courts for approval to carryforward into FY 2025, $112,000 in unspent FY 2024 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Local Fiscal Recovery Funds needed to hire a coordinator to continue progress on backlog initiatives, effective October 1, 2024.
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Background and Discussion:
In January 2022, the Harris County District Criminal Courts established the two-year Associate Judge (AJ) program and Emergency Relief Trial Dockets (ERTD), to address the case backlog caused by displacement from the courthouse following Hurricane Harvey and the COVID-19 pandemic.? On August 27, 2024, Commissioners Court approved $1,380,163 in carryforward funding for 10 more positions through FY25. However, an additional coordinator is needed to staff the Competency Restoration (CR) docket. On September 5, 2024 the ARPA Steering Committee approved this request.
The CR docket has roughly 1300 cases, but this does NOT include a couple of hundred individuals on a post-conviction probation - "CTI" docket who regularly require attention and intervention from the court. The amount of work required in a single CR docket case can be quadruple the work required of a regular criminal case. The docket involves anyone who has been found to be incompetent, as well as persons who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity, all of which trigger a series of statutory requirements, deadlines, and paperwork, and involve numerous agencies, care providers, and hospitals who submit legal documents through the court via paper because th...
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