Two members of the JWT development team met yesterday with Tucson City Court personnel. Presiding Magistrate Antonio Riojas, Court Administrator Chris Hale, Asst. Administrators Spain and O'Haver and several support personnel listened to our request for access to information about upcoming court events. They asked a number of questions about our intentions and described several difficult situations they face in responding to requests such as ours. Data releases are governed by Az. Supreme Court rules which must to be researched. Current workloads are crushing, especially given that a total computer system changeover looms in the near future for the Court.
Our approach was to keep it as simple as possible and as automated as possible, thus assuring minimal drain on Court resources. We accented that Tucson City Court is at the center of many issues of importance to neighborhoods and that the justice watch program we envision is designed to make it easy for residents of Tucson's neighborhoods to find upcoming court events of direct interest to them. We described our desire to be able to integrate City Court event information with that of other courts and regulatory processes, to produce a composite listing that will underlie a successful justice watch process. We said that we have no agenda other than making public information about court events conveniently available to affected citizens.
In the end, Court personnel agreed to consider our request and to get back to us about their decision. We very much appreciate their willingness to consider the good they would do for enhanced community participation in the justice system and the relatively small effort needed to bring it about.
Our approach was to keep it as simple as possible and as automated as possible, thus assuring minimal drain on Court resources. We accented that Tucson City Court is at the center of many issues of importance to neighborhoods and that the justice watch program we envision is designed to make it easy for residents of Tucson's neighborhoods to find upcoming court events of direct interest to them. We described our desire to be able to integrate City Court event information with that of other courts and regulatory processes, to produce a composite listing that will underlie a successful justice watch process. We said that we have no agenda other than making public information about court events conveniently available to affected citizens.
In the end, Court personnel agreed to consider our request and to get back to us about their decision. We very much appreciate their willingness to consider the good they would do for enhanced community participation in the justice system and the relatively small effort needed to bring it about.
No comments:
Post a Comment