Digital Library

The Department of Behavioral Health's (DBH) mission is to develop, manage and oversee a public behavioral health system for adults, children and youth and their families that is consumer driven, community-based, culturally competent and supports prevention, resiliency and recovery and the overall wellbeing of the District of Columbia. Among the populations that DBH serves are adults with behavioral health disorders who commit, or are accused of committing, a criminal offense. In October 2016, the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor (ODCA) engaged the Council for Court Excellence (CCE) to conduct a review of, and make recommendations for improving, the effectiveness of DBH's interactions with the criminal justice system and the services it provides to justice-involved behavioral health consumers.

2017 edution of CCE's guide to DC's justice system for victims of crime in Amharic.

Una guía del sistema de justicia de DC para víctimas de delitos.

CCE's Victim's Guide has been a stalwart resource for victims and their advocates for nearly 30 years. While previous versions focused on court proceedings and the trial process, this revision took a more holistic approach because most criminal cases do not go to trial. The 2017 editiion of the Victim's Guide provided comprehensive overview of various facets of D.C.'s justice system and directs victims to the myriad community-based resources that have become available in recent years.

Collaborating with Georgetown Law Center's Community Justice Project to identify the most serious collateral consequences of having a criminal record, CCE has focused on reforms needed in D.C.'s occupational and professional licensing system. This report examines barriers that a returning citizen may experience while working to obtain an occupational or professional license in the District of Columbia. CCE's eight recommendations include prohibiting D.C.'s licensing boards from considering non-conviction background information and older convictions, as well as creating and applying a uniform standard that all licensing boards use to review convictions.

CCE is proud to provide "Remote Public Access to Electronic Court Records: A Cross-Jurisdictional Review for the D.C. Courts," a cross-jurisdictional review of systems for remote access to public court records to help guide the D.C. courts as they continue to implement new technologies.

Executive Summary of CCE's Beyond Second Chances: Returning Citizens' Re-entry Struggles and Successes in the District of Columbia. This report provides the most complete picture to date of the challenges that returning citizens face in D.C. and offers recommendations to help them succeed when reintegrating into their communities. In a city where 1 in 22 adults is under some form of correctional control on any given day, easing the path home will benefit thousands of D.C. residents, their families, and the entire city by helping returning citizens move beyond second chances to fulfill their potential.

Through a review of previously unreleased data and a series of in-depth interviews with returning citizens and service providers, this report, Beyond Second Chances: Returning Citizens' Re-entry Struggles and Successes in the District of Columbia, provides the most complete picture to date of the challenges that returning citizens face in D.C. and offers recommendations to help them succeed when reintegrating into their communities.In a city where 1 in 22 adults is under some form of correctional control on any given day, easing the path home will benefit thousands of D.C. residents, their families, and the entire city by helping returning citizens move beyond second chances to fulfill their potential.

Working with Georgetown Law Community Justice Project, CCE drafted this initial policy report for the D.C. Council, Toward Greater Access: A Proposal for a Clemency Solution for DC. The primary goal of this proposal is to create the most effective, complete, and feasible clemency solution possible for DC. This Proposal functions as a complete set of recommendations that could immediately be implemented by the Council of the District of Columbia.This document analysis is based on academic articles and research into current state clemency system practices. Furthermore, we conducted interviews with legal academics about best practices in clemency systems, individuals affiliated with CCE with knowledge of and experience with the DC criminal justice system, returning citizens--both federal and DC Code offenders--in DC who sought clemency, and local practitioners, who could talk about obstacles to clemency in the current system.

CCE's "Equity in School Discipline: An Examination of School Disciplinary Policies and Practices in the District of Columbia Public Education System and Recommendations for Reform" begins by comprehensively describing the District of Columbia's traditional and charter public school disciplinary systems. In addition, the report provides an assessment of the discipline policies that traditional and charter schools follow. It then outlines the due process rights that are afforded to District youth who may be facing exclusion from school based on behavior in violation of school discipline codes. This section also offers "Quick Tips" that provide helpful information to attorneys, advocates, parents, and students who may be challenging a discipinary action. The report ends by profiling the voices of select school administrators from DC traditional and charter middle and high schools who are responsible for developing and implementing school discipline policies. These school administrators share best practices and ways to improve dsicipline in schools.

Recommendations to Improve DC’s Office of Administrative Hearings A Report of the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor Kathleen Patterson, District of Columbia Auditor The District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings (“OAH”) was established in 2001 to “provide a fair, efficient and effective forum to manage and resolve administrative disputes.” Over the past 12 years since its implementation, OAH has provided tens of thousands of District of Columbia residents and businesses with a neutral setting in which to appeal DC agency decisions or hold evidentiary or administrative hearings on enforcement or other issues. After more than a decade of experience with this central hearings panel, the DC Auditor determined that a comprehensive analysis was needed of whether OAH had met its reform objectives and whether additional improvements could be made. The DC Auditor engaged the Council for Court Excellence to conduct this analysis.

In the summer of 2015, Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC) partnered with the Council for Court Excellence to survey District residents about their perceptions of public safety. The survey is part of the larger “Collaborating for Prevention” initiative that CPDC is leading with support from Local Initiatives Support Corporation.