Re-engineering the Post Conviction Relief Unit

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

Since 2010, the Criminal Department of the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County has taken significant steps to redesign how requests for post-conviction relief are processed. This effort has resulted in more timely rulings and almost a complete elimination of the use of paper within the Court for this process. Averaging more than 1,400 new requests for post-conviction relief a year, Court staff were bombarded by paper pleadings and letters, many from defendants in prison. The processing of the physical paper and tracking it through an extensive review sequence before being reviewed by a judge, required time, storage, and tracking logs. In 2010, Department staff began utilizing functionality in “off the shelf” software, coupled with changes to the Court’s automated case management system, to begin processing some documents electronically. This initial re-engineering effort reduced the amount of paperwork used by 60%, and improved the tracking process by 70%. In 2013, additional re-engineering was implemented, utilizing work queue technology and eliminating the use of paper documents completely. These enhancements reduced the handling of paper an additional 88%, reduced document delivery time by more than 80%, and reduced processing time by 50%.