Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
County judge seeks data on circuit courts
Deakins: Must find way to measure performance
FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County Judge Patrick Deakins on Thursday continued to push for measurable data on the operation of the county’s circuit courts.
Deakins told members of the county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee the county has to be able to quantify the performance of the courts, identify problems and seek solutions. He presented the group with information on the “Courtools” program developed by the National Center for State Courts that could be used by Washington County.
The development of Trial Court Performance Standards dates to the 1980s and was developed by a commission including state and local judges, court administrators, an elected clerk of the court and scholars in judicial administration, according to the center.
The standards set goals and objectives in five areas: access to justice; expedition and timeliness; equality, fairness and integrity; independence and accountability; and public trust and confidence.
“These five performance areas encompass the fundamental purposes and responsibilities of courts and may be thought of as a court’s ‘mission,’” a report from the center states. There are 22 standards across the five performance areas.
Deakins said the coordinating committee can use the resources in the Courtools program to study and analyze Washington County’s courts. He urged the members of the committee to begin using the program.
“I’m sad that it took us six months to find this document,” Deakins said, referring to the report from the center. “This is what I’ve been talking about.”
In the report, the center identifies a dozen measurements for the performance of the courts. Deakins said the first five measurements — access and fairness, clearance rates, time to disposition, age of active pending caseload and trial date certainty — are his priorities for gathering data.
The committee agreed on the need to measure the courts performance but repeated warnings that some of the questions being asked aren’t easily answered. Several members of the panel said questions about the frequency of cases being continued aren’t easily quantified and often have to do with areas beyond the authority of the courts, like time needed for mental evaluations, time needed to locate and interview potential witnesses, the backlog of cases at the state Crime Lab, and the volume of cases being handled by local prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges.
District Court Judge Terra Stephenson said to evaluate the frequency of continuances and the reasons behind them would require someone to spend time looking at each order for continuance in every case. She suggested the review of the cases would need to cover at least a year of cases to provide enough accurate information to begin to make judgements about how the system is operating.
“It would take at least a year to look and to weed out what we can’t fix,” Stephenson said. “We can’t fix everything.”
Deakins said the committee needs to commit to finding ways to measure the courts’ performance or go home.
“That’s the only way we’re going to be able to make progress,” he said.
Circuit Court Judge Cristi Beaumont agreed data is needed but said time is needed to study the data.
“We need data in order to be able to look at what we need to do,” Beaumont said. “Our ultimate goal is to try to help people.”