Court Referral Tracking Module: Justice Electronic Library System

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

The Probation Department gets roughly two weeks to prepare written recommendations for the sentencing of adult criminal defendants when ordered by the courts. Probation Officers spent approximately 15 minutes per case walking to the District Attorney’s office to review files and copy the police reports and transcripts needed to prepare sentencing and other court-ordered reports. Probation officers must do this about 1,000 times per month. The average cost of this process — having officers take time, look through DA files and make copies is roughly $11,000 a month. By implementing the Justice Electronic Library System (JELS) Referral Tracking Module, there is no need to walk over, search through files and make copies. Probation now uses JELS to electronically request and receive those documents from the DA’s automated system — saving $132,000 a year in staff time. Using JELS means Probation no longer has to physically transport hard-copy Referrals from the four branch courts downtown for processing. This eliminates travel costs and the possibility of lost documents. It also means Probation officers can start working on Referrals immediately and spend more time on them because electronic records are received the same day they are requested.