BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE (BJA) DRUG COURT CLEARINGHOUSE

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1 JUSTICE PROGRAMS OFFICE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS BUREAU OF JUSTICE ASSISTANCE (BJA) DRUG COURT CLEARINGHOUSE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS SERIES: Required Initial and/or Continuing Legal Education/Training for Drug Court Judges and For New Judges Subject: Required Initial and/or Continuing Legal Education/Training for Drug Court Judges and for New Judges From: BJA Drug Court Clearinghouse Date: June 3, 2009 QUESTION Scott Griffith, for Louisiana, has raised the following question (# 1) and I've added the second one: (1) Does your state require any (1) initial orientation and/or (2) Continuing Legal Education (CLE) training for drug court judges? If so, have specific requirements been articulated? What are they? (2) Does your state offer training on drug courts as part of its general judicial education courses, either for new judges and/or as part of continuing education courses?. The following are the responses received to date from the drug court officials noted. RESPONSES Carol Roddy Administrative Office of the Arkansas Courts ARKANSAS For Arkansas, Judges have continuing education requirements. We offer a lot of judicial training through the Administrative Office of the Courts but only during the annual statewide meeting of drug court personnel do we provide specific drug court training that judges can attend and gain continuing education hours. We do not have mandates although we make every effort to get new teams through some formal training, either at NDCI or with their help here in Arkansas. So far,

2 drug courts are such a small subset of the judiciary, it has not risen to the level of occupying a slot during the semi-annual judicial council meetings where training is provided to all judges. COLORADO Shane Bahr Court Program Specialist Planning & Analysis Division Colorado Judicial Branch shane.bahr@judicial.state.co.us At this point in time Colorado does not require any training for drug court judges. We do encourage judges to seek training, but to date we have not provided such training. There will be a session discussing drug courts at the State Judicial Conference this year. GEORGIA Jane Martin Associate Director for Children, Families and the Courts Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts martinjh@gaaoc.us Georgia requires all new drug court teams, including the judge, to attend team training Drug Court Planning Initiative or equivalent - to be eligible for a grant from the Judicial Council Standing Committee on Drug Courts, which administers drug court grant funds appropriated by the legislature. The Standing Committee, which under Georgia law sets standards for drug courts, sponsors an annual drug, DUI and mental health court conference, and offers partial scholarships for teams to attend. The large majority of drug, DUI and mental health court judges attend that conference, but there are no mandatory continuing education hours for drug court judges. The Georgia Institute for Continuing Judicial Education has offered general education about drug courts as part of their semi-annual judges training, but there are no mandatory courses. Each class of court has a training council that sets the training agenda for judges. The Council of Superior Court Judges and the Council of State Court Judges both have Accountability and Treatment Court Committees. Connie Payne Administrative Office of the Kentucky Courts ConniePayne@kycourts.net KENTUCKY 1. Does your state require any (1) initial orientation and/or (2) Continuing Legal Education (CLE) training for drug court judges? No If so, have specific requirements been articulated? What are they? 2. Does your state offer training on drug courts as part of its general judicial education courses, either for new judges and/or as part of continuing education courses? No

3 MINNESOTA Dan Griffin Court Operations Analyst- Chemical Health Minnesota Judicial Branch State Court Administrator's Office We require the DCPI to be completed before a drug court can become operational or recognized as a legitimate drug court. We have been paying for it to come here for the past four years. We do have not a specific training requirements for judges, at least at this point. MISSOURI [Ann Wilson (succeeded by Rick Morrissey) Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coordinator Division Court Programs and Research Office of State Courts Administrator Ann.Wilson@courts.mo.gov Rick.morrisey@courts.mo.gov In Missouri, our judicial colleges have included drug court session during the "optional" training, but there were usually large numbers in the sessions. Other judges did the sessions. In the 2009 judicial college, there will be 2 Missouri/national folks doing sessions - Carl Dawson who talks about addiction and the brain chemistry; and Paul Cary to talk about drug testing. The annual drug court conference usually provides hours of CLE plus some ethics hours. Attorneys in Missouri need 15 hours of CLE each year and 3 hours of ethics every 3 years. NEW YORK Frank Jordan Executive Assistant to the Deputy Chief Administrative Judge FJORDAN@courts.state.ny.us New York State has a two day training for new members who join established drug court teams. This training is available to team members from all roles including the drug court judge. The attached agenda is from our last training, conducted in March, For the three breakout sessions by role conducted during this training session, we have facilitators work with each group to address specific objectives as outlined in the attached Facilitator Information. There is no current ongoing training requirement for Drug Court Judges. There is annual judicial continuing education training. The curriculum is developed each year and has included problem solving court principles in the past.

4 A brief overview presentation on the various New York State problem solving courts was developed and presented to the approximately 2,300 town and village justices at 30 local training sessions in the Fall of March 25 th, 2008 New York State Treatment Court Training: New Team Members March 25-26, 2008 Buffalo, New York 8:30 9:00 Continental Breakfast 9:00 9:15 Welcome and Overview of Training Hon. Thomas P. Amodeo Supervising Judge, Buffalo City Court Frank Jordan, Executive Assistant to the Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Office of Court Administration Drug Treatment Programs Valerie Raine, Director, Drug Court Projects Center for Court Innovation 9:15 10:15 CONCURRENT SESSIONS The Key Components for Treatment Court Sky Davis, Project Manager Frank Jordan, Executive Assistant New York State Drug Treatment Courts Guiding Principles for Family Treatment Courts Karen Ambrozik, Project Manager Linda Baldwin, Project Manager New York State Drug Treatment Courts 10:15 11:15 Breakout by Role Role Lancaster Team Suffolk Team Judges (Criminal and Family) Prosecutors Defense Attorneys County Attorneys / Law Guardians / CASA Coordinators / Court-based Case Managers DSS/CPS Staff Mediators / Treatment-based Case Managers Law Enforcement Court Security Court Managers Facilitator Hon. Mark Violante Hon. Felix Catena Hon. Peter Bradstreet Martha Colburn Robert Lonski Mark Leider` Jennifer LaFontaine Gloria Cronin Naura Slivinsky Sgt. Dan Ball Capt. Dennis Schmierer and Frank Jordan Jeff Smith and Karen Ambrozik 11:15 11:30 Break 11:30 1:00 CONCURRENT SESSIONS NON-TREATMENT PROFESSIONALS Psychopharmacology of Addiction Steve Hanson, Director John L. Norris Addiction Treatment Center TREATMENT PROFESSIONALS (Legal Process) Criminal Court Basics Valerie Raine, Director, Drug Court Projects Center for Court Innovation Family Court Basics Mark Leider, Esq. Lawyers for Children

5 1:00 2:00 Lunch 2:00 3:00 Team Building Joe Lunievicz, Deputy Director National Development and Research Institutes 3:00 4:30 Treatment Modalities and Cultural Competence Joe Lunievicz, Deputy Director National Development and Research Institutes March 26 th, :30 9:00 Continental Breakfast 9:00 10:30 Drug Testing Paul Cary, Director, Toxicology and Drug Monitoring Laboratory University of Missouri Health Care System 10:30 10:45 Break 10:45 11:45 Breakout by Role Role Lancaster Team Suffolk Team Judges (Criminal and Family) Prosecutors Defense Attorneys County Attorneys / Law Guardians / CASA Coordinators / Court-based Case Managers DSS/CPS Staff Mediators / Treatment-based Case Managers Law Enforcement Court Security Court Managers Facilitator Hon. Mark Violante Hon. Felix Catena Hon. Peter Bradstreet Martha Colburn Robert Lonski Mark Leider Jennifer LaFontaine Gloria Cronin Naura Slivinsky Sgt. Dan Ball Capt. Dennis Schmierer and Frank Jordan Jeff Smith and Karen Ambrozik 11:45 1:00 Confidentiality and Ethics Carson Fox, Director of Operations National Drug Court Institute 1:00 2:00 Lunch 2:00 3:00 Breakout by Role Role Lancaster Team Suffolk Team Judges (Criminal and Family) Prosecutors Defense Attorneys County Attorneys / Law Guardians / CASA Coordinators / Court-based Case Managers DSS/CPS Staff Mediators / Treatment-based Case Managers Law Enforcement Court Security Court Managers Facilitator Hon. Mark Violante Hon. Felix Catena Hon. Peter Bradstreet Martha Colburn Robert Lonski Mark Leider Jennifer LaFontaine Gloria Cronin Naura Slivinsky Sgt. Dan Ball Capt. Dennis Schmierer and Frank Jordan Jeff Smith and Karen Ambrozik

6 3:00 4:15 Sanctions and Incentives Carson Fox, Director of Operations National Drug Court Institute 4:15 4:30 Conclusion, Evaluations and Certificates P. Karen Blackburn Problem Solving Courts Coordinator Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts Supreme Court of Pennsylvania At this point, we do not. Marie Crosson Office of Criminal Justice Programs PENNSYLVANIA TENNESSEE Just this year, the AOC has agreed to have drug court training be a regular part of the annual judicial conferences for misdemeanor and felony courts, so we are excited about this new partner and training opportunity. We do not have mandatory drug court training for judges, although we provide many opportunities. Our office requires planning training for new drug court programs if they want to receive funding through our office, but they can chose not to. We have implemented a certification this year, and it is based on the 10 Key Components. Certified drug courts will have turned in a training plan that includes all team members and it consistent with Key Component #9. UTAH Richard Swermer Utah Administrative Office of the Courts ricks@ .utcourts.gov We don't yet require an orientation or specific Drug Court CLE, but we are looking at the orientation piece. As to educational offerings, we do a statewide training just for Drug Court judges every other year, but we also do some sort of problem solving court session at most of our general judicial trainings, usually as a break-out. Karen Gennette Administrative Office of the Vermont Courts Karen.Gennette@state.vt.us VERMONT

7 Vermont doesn't have anything formal. The local coordinators, the experienced drug/treatment court judges and the state treatment court coordinator provide orientations as well as resources on specific topics, e.g. drug testing, contingency management. When there is funding available we have sent judges to the Judicial Drug Court Training by NDCI. They have also attended the NEADCP (New England Association of Drug Court Professionals) Conference in Boston and we have provided a variety of workshops locally. The Vermont Judicial College takes place every June. There have been presentations on mental health issues and substance abuse issues, members from the one Mental Health Court have presented and in June 2008, Doug Marlowe did a day long presentation. ****** We welcome any additional information and/or perspective readers may have on this topic. Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Drug Court Clearinghouse Justice Programs Office, School of Public Affairs American University 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Brandywine, Suite 100 Washington D.C Tel: 202/ Fax: 202/ justice@american.edu Web: