After receiving federal funding awarded by ICJI through the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, the Indiana Public Defender Council in partnership with JTAC are moving forward with the development of the Public Defender Information System.  A Working Group meeting, attended by representatives from the public defender community including attorneys, a PD office administrator and an investigative paralegal, was held last week at JTAC to test and review the first of six product builds. 

Attendees of the working group provided input regarding the functionality of system requirements and requested several modifications.  The first build consists of organizational and individual security features as well as importing case information from the Odyssey case management system.  Working group meetings for builds two and three are scheduled for June and July. 

The attendees (from left to right) are Deborah Outcalt (Monroe County), Kenneth Williams (Marion County), LaJuan Epperson (JTAC), Curtis Johnson (Shelby County), Don Murphy (IPDC) and Rand Lennox (JTAC consultant). Doug Long (Madison County) and Mary DePrez (JTAC) also attended the meeting.

On December 8, JTAC made its final 2009 presentation to the monthly stakeholders meeting held at our office in Indianapolis. The presentation highlights the milestones in court technology that have been achieved this year, including the continuing implementation of the Odyssey case management system in the counties as well as enhancements to the software application, and advances related to JTAC’s many other technology projects.

View presentation slides

In early 2009, JTAC partnered with the Indiana Public Defender Council (IPDC) to develop a PD module (statewide case management system) that will link with the Supreme Court’s Odyssey case management system.  The PD module is software to help public defenders and public defender office staff manage their work.  In April, JTAC demonstrated a  prototype of the PD module at this year’s PD Office Administrators conference.  Those in attendance were very impressed with all the features and the audience eagerly anticipated its release.  Originally, a pilot was to be available by early fall 2009.  Funding for this initiative has not been identified and secured.

The PD module is still a high priority for the two agencies and efforts to secure additional funding to support development of the system are still underway.  We will continue to keep you informed of project developments as they occur!

JTAC, in partnership with the Indiana Public Defender Council (IPDC), completed the first phase of the Public Defender System project.  Last Friday, the Project Team from JTAC, Emily Mahurin and Rand Lennox, presented an update on the project at IPDC’s 6th Annual Conference for Public Defender Office Administrators in Fishers, Indiana.  The presentation included an overview of the project approach and steering committee, a detailed walk-through of how the system is being designed, and a demo of the system prototype developed by JTAC.

More than 20 office administrators from across the state were present for the update and first glimpse of the system that will give attorneys real-time access to their client’s court activity, as well as several other noteworthy features to assist administrators with managing the office.  Cathy Dunn and Joy Penson, who attended the conference on behalf of Allen County Public Defender’s Office said that they are extremely excited as the system “seems to provide very specific functions, applicable to all Indiana counties, and will serve as a unified and comprehensive database to assist us in performing our jobs more efficiently.”  One example function, provided by Cathy, is the ease at which relationships between various cases and people can be set up in the application.

JTAC, in partnership with the Indiana Public Defender Council (IPDC), has completed the first phase of the Public Defender System project.  JTAC and IPDC met this week to review the final draft of requirements for the system, developed through design sessions with the PD Working Group, and to test-drive the application prototype that was developed by JTAC during this first phase.  Also discussed was recommendations for the feature set to be included in the first release of the system, targeted for pilot by early fall 2009.

JTAC provided an update on the initiative at its monthly Stakeholder Meeting this week, including a brief demonstration of the Public Defender System prototype.  On April 24th, JTAC will present a similar update and demo at the Annual Conference for PD Office Administrators.

JTAC has partnered with the Indiana Public Defender Council (IPDC) to develop a statewide case manager application that will interface with Odyssey for attorneys and public defender office staff.  Yesterday, the leadership team for this initiative met to discuss current status and policy questions that have come up to date.  Also, the group discussed the next Working Group design session, which is scheduled for next Wednesday, March 25^th.  Screens and functionality for topic areas such as case assignment, calendaring, and forms/documents will be discussed at this all-day working meeting among the JTAC developers and business analysts, public defenders, and office administrators.

A prototype of Indiana Public Defender will be completed in early April.  Next steps will include determination of features for the first release of the system, which is targeted for pilot by early fall 2009.

JTAC has partnered with the Indiana Public Defender Council (IPDC) to develop a statewide case manager application that will interface with Odyssey for attorneys and public defender office staff.  Last year, in collaboration with IPDC, we began what we call the “requirements gathering process.”

During the process, we discussed with public defenders and office administrators across the state what the new system would need to do, and we identified nearly 150 high-level requirements.  Many of these same public defenders and office administrators have become members of our Public Defender System Working Group-a committee that will guide our developers and business analysts throughout the project.

Our team of developers has already begun building a prototype of the system, and last week we held the first design session with the Working Group.  The group discussed what types of reports the system should produce and looked at prototype screens for user dashboards, client tracking, and court case information.  Screens and functionality for topic areas such as case assignment, calendaring, and forms/documents will be discussed at the next session in March.

The first release of Indiana Public Defender is targeted for pilot by early fall 2009.