“It was stressful, but also probably one of the things I felt really good about last year,” said Kendra Oishi, the university board’s executive administrator and secretary.
To understand how giant these leaps are, consider that until a few years ago clerks processed state employee overtime by hand and calculator and penciled totals in a ledger. Some state government workers must still fill out carbon paper forms to request leave.
During the pandemic, state courts went from holding essentially no video conferences to conducting 128,000 cases on Zoom and WebEx between August and December.
Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald said the judiciary was “creating the courts of the future” that were more responsive to a community accustomed to doing business online.
Reports of domestic violence have increased during the pandemic, and that has the state judiciary concerned.
Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald told the legislature how the state s judicial system is faring during the COVID-19 pandemic during his State of the Judiciary address last week. He highlighted the courts have been backlogged more than usual due to safety concerns, and an overwhleming amount of COVID-related citations.
He says more than 60,000 COVID-related citations have been issued on Oahu. That s compared to the 20,000 criminal citations the first circuit district court handled in 2019. Violating an emergency order is a full misdemeanor, carrying a possible sentence of up to a year in prison.
Panel: Hawaii Justice System Needs Better Data Collection - Honolulu Civil Beat
Panel: Hawaii Justice System Needs Better Data Collection
Government agencies also need to get better at sharing their data, including information on arrests and demographics, experts say. Reading time: 4 minutes.
Hawaii needs to collect more and better data, share that data between agencies, and actually start implementing policy proposals on reducing prison populations if it ever hopes to make meaningful reforms to the state’s criminal justice system.
Those are some of the major takeaways from an hour-long panel discussion, the second in a series from the state Judiciary titled “Confronting Racial Injustice.” Panelists during Friday’s event included Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm, Erin Harbinson, the executive director of the Criminal Justice Research Institute and RaeDeen Keahiolalo, the principal of Magma LLC.
AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy
Updated 1/28/21, 12 p.m.
The state judiciary is asking the legislature to not decrease its operating budget for the next year.
Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald highlighted the strain the pandemic has put on the judicial system during his State of the Judiciary address on Wednesday.
Recktenwald says it has hurt efforts to support victims, as well as programs that keep the community safe such as mental health and substance abuse services.
He noted the judiciary s budget has decreased over the last decade, and now accounts for less than 2% of the overall state s budget. He warned further cuts would have an impact.