News
Pennsylvania Court Technology for Clean Slate and Language Access Receives National Recognition
News Article
January 19, 2021
The Pennsylvania Courts have been selected this year again as a two-time winner of the National Association for Court Management (NACM) and Court Information Technology Officers Consortium (CITOC) 2020 Technology Awards.
In recognition of improved communications, operational efficiencies and access to justice using technology, the Pennsylvania Courts were selected as the winner of the 2020 NACM/CITOC Technology Award in the following categories:
- Court Management: Cross Boundary – Clean Slate
- Court Management: Court Process Innovations – Language Access System
Under Pennsylvania’s landmark Clean Slate law certain criminal records are sealed from public view using an automated process. It is an excellent example of all three branches of state government working together to accomplish a criminal justice reform initiative, one that is critically important to the people of Pennsylvania.
By all accounts, Clean Slate has been a huge success and has had an extraordinary impact in Pennsylvania. The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Court’s (AOPC) successful implementation of this automated process has sealed more than 48 million records on 35 million cases in a little over a year.
“This has been another year of significant technological achievement for Pennsylvania’s Judiciary,” said Court Administrator Geoff Moulton. “The success of the recently adopted Clean Slate law depends on Pennsylvania’s Judicial Computer System, and the law’s implementation would not have been possible without the talented staff who have once again been honored by their peers.”
Simultaneously, the AOPC’s recently implemented Language Access System won the Court Process Innovations Award in the Court Management category for its optimization of the way people, processes and technology work together to transform courts. As part of the 10th most linguistically diverse state in the U.S., Pennsylvania Courts began addressing the need to appropriately serve these populations on a level basis in earnest in 2017 with the adoption of its statewide Language Access plan.
As a result of this plan, the AOPC/IT Department has undertaken numerous efforts to implement the Court's vision over the past few years. The most recent efforts include the addition of the Notice of Language Rights form in the statewide case management systems and an entirely new language encounter tracking application where county Language Access Coordinators can manage language-related service requests, and fulfillment and payment of those requests.
More information about the work and the role of AOPC/IT, is available here.
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Media contact: Kimberly Bathgate, 717-576-4373