We are supporting the Wisconsin Reporting, Analysis, and Mining Project (RAMP). RAMP will integrate the State Public Defender’s individual case data with the aggregate case data of the Wisconsin Court System to more accurately measure the quality of indigent defense in Wisconsin, especially for clients represented by private assigned counsel. As part of RAMP, SPD will conduct analyses of these data to better inform both its internal decision-making and external policy choices by the legislature and public.
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Initial teleconference with site to collect information about site's project, describe TTA role, and plan for future meetings. Ongoing communication and planning through email.
NLADA did not conduct a full site visit in Wisconsin during this reporting period, so its involvement with the project has not been as in-depth as in the other sites. NCJA did, however, attend two monthly project planning meetings in-person. NCJA met with information technologists at the State Public Defender (SPD) who gave a demonstration of the case management system, which they are upgrading to bring in data from the court system. NCJA has advised the project team on best practices in uniform data collection across justice systems.
During monthly calls, NLADA has offered insight to Wisconsin’s practitioners and researchers about how to develop goals for the indigent defense system and performance measures for those goals. This was a topic that Wisconsin, especially, was enthusiastic about exploring with the other sites at the Smart Defense Inter-site Summit on May 23 in Washington, DC; they shared a presentation from the Summit about performance measurement with their attorney managers that the project team found very helpful. The NLADA TTA team consulted with the practitioner lead on refining the performance measures that were developed after the May 23 Summit.
NLADA and NCJA conducted a site visit to Wisconsin in July. They met with the full State Public Defender team working on the Smart Defense RAMP project, including management, information technologists, attorneys, and administrative personnel. Among other on-site highlights, NLADA/NCJA met with representatives of Wisconsin’s broader, NIC-supported statewide evidence-based decision-making team to discuss the nexus between it and RAMP; attended a treatment court staffing session; and conducted court observations. As with the other Smart Defense project site visits, the visit put RAMP in much sharper focus, allowing NLADA to support and message about its advances more effectively. NLADA and NCJA provided ongoing communication and planning through phone and email.
The significant advances made by the RAMP team in the reporting period include: completion of programming to automatically import court system data to the SPD case management system; development and refinement of quality performance indicators; development of preliminary analytics reports SPD will use to assess those indicators using its new access to court data; development and beta testing of a new case-reporting and vouchering system for private bar conflict-of-interest counsel that will greatly enhance SPD’s ability to analyze case activity and trends.
NLADA and NCJA provided ongoing communication and planning through phone and email to Smart Defense Wisconsin team during this reporting period. The State Public Defender’s Smart Defense team made significant progress toward integrating key performance indicators into management reports that will be regularly produced to aid in internal staff performance assessment and in external messaging to the legislature. The reports will be generated from the SPD’s new data warehouse, which combines public defender data with data from the state courts. Progress was also made toward developing a new interface to collect improved information on vouchering and performance from private bar attorneys who handle conflict of interest cases.
During this reporting period, the Wisconsin site successfully wrapped up their project. While SPD remains interested in continuing their work on the Reporting, Analysis, and Mining Project (RAMP) they do not currently have ongoing funding available. There is some internal discussion of RAMP 2.0 should funding be identified for the project. NLADA has provided some guidance on possible funding streams including sources in the tech sector, corporate partners, and the upcoming BJA Sixth Amendment Category 2 grant.
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