Nine Sites in Rural America Named Seedbeds for Justice Reform

The sites, including a program to train new attorneys in south Dakota and an entrepreneurship center for trafficking survivors in Kansas, are part of a program launched by the Rural Justice Collaborative in partnership with the National Center for State Courts. 

Nine Sites in Rural America Named Seedbeds for Justice Reform
people at a meeting

Participants in the Center for Empowering Victims of Gender-Based Violence in Kansas, one of nine projects designated as “rural innovation sites” by the RJC.

A program to recruit and train new attorneys in South Dakota and a center that helps survivors of trafficking and domestic violence in Kansas become entrepreneurs are among nine “rural innovation” sites which will receive support under an initiative to promote justice reform in the U.S. heartland.

The initiative was launched last year by the Rural Justice Collaborative (RJC), in partnership with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC).

“Rural community leaders often don’t have the resources to develop programs from scratch, but we know that many rural justice leaders have found innovative solutions to their complex problems,” said Tara Kunkel, Executive Director of Rulo Strategies, which organized the RJC, in a statement announcing the awards.

“Before this, there has been no nationally concerted effort for justice leaders and their collaborators in other sectors to share what they know. The Innovation Sites provide a framework that others can build from.”

Although the problems of the justice system in urban areas have received the lion’s share of attention in the media, rural America is reeling from underfunded court systems, overcrowded jails―and has been especially hard hit by the opioid epidemic.

Rural Americans are more likely than urban residents to be jailed, and to lack professional help for substance use and mental health issues. But efforts to export strategies that have worked in urban settings often fail in small communities or rural areas, where public health resources are strained.

“The programs and methods developed from large courts are often not models for rural courts, because they do not always account for the geographic barriers in rural areas, or resonate with key aspects of rural culture,” said Jonathan Mattiello, Executive Director of the State Justice Institute (SJI), which will provide funding to the designated innovation sites.

The nine innovation sites designated by the RJC are:

    • South Carolina Victim Assistance Network Reaching Rural Initiative
      The Reaching Rural Initiative provides resources to crime victims remotely and in their own communities via Victims’ Rights Centers.
    • Lazarus Recovery Services in North Carolina
      This program of Project Lazarus provides prevention and recovery support services to justice-involved individuals with substance use disorders.
    • The Center for Empowering Victims of Gender-based Violence in Kansas
      This research and collaboration center focuses on promoting the connection between social entrepreneurship and economic freedom for domestic violence and human trafficking victims.
    • The Rural Attorney Recruitment Program in South Dakota
      The Rural Attorney Recruitment Program recruits qualified attorneys to practice for five years in rural counties where older attorneys are retiring and there is an absence of individuals to provide legal services.
    • The Rural Incubator Project for Lawyers in Montana
      This program provides a 24-month fellowship program that trains and supports attorneys to develop solo or small firm practices that provide legal services to low-income Montanans in rural communities.
    • Texas Dispute Resolution System: Rural Mediation
      Rural Texans benefit from this alternative dispute resolution system which provides in-person and virtual mediation services.
    • Public Defender Corporation Recovery Coach Project in West Virginia
      This project connects indigent criminal defendants with substance use disorders to certified peer recovery coaches who arrange for substance use treatment opportunities immediately after a client is released from incarceration.
    • Scott County Coordinated Community Response (CCR) Team in Tennessee
      This multi-agency group provides various services and support to victims of domestic violence, elder abuse, human trafficking and sexual assault.
    • Family Accountability and Recovery Court in North Carolina
      Families involved in the child welfare system due to allegations of child abuse, neglect, or other parenting issues related to substance dependence find services in this program that facilitate wholistic treatment.

The RJC use takeaways from the programs to create a “vast knowledge pool” of potential innovations that could be used elsewhere in the heartland, said Kristina Bryant of NCSC.

The framework for the program was developed through a series of meetings last spring among judges, prosecutors, public defenders and treatment providers, aimed at finding ways to introduce justice reforms tailored to the needs of rural America.

According to Kristina Bryant, the NCSC project director for the collaborative, said the long-range goal was to provide a resource bank rural leaders could use to kickstart their own programs.

“These coaching resources will allow rural community leaders to quickly get up to speed on best practices and avoid missteps so they can launch their own successful initiatives,” she said at the time.

The National Center for State Courts, headquartered in Williamsburg, Va., is a nonprofit court organization dedicated to improving the administration of justice by through services to state courts. It was founded in 1971 by the Conference of Chief Justices and then-Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger.

Rulo Strategies is a woman-owned business focused on supporting and evaluating initiatives designed to foster collaboration between diverse stakeholders with distinct but complementary missions. Founder Tara Kunkel served as a Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) where she advised on the policy direction of all opioid-related and overdose prevention initiatives.

The State Justice Institute (SJI), a non-profit corporation governed by an 11-member Board of Directors appointed by the President, was established by federal law in 1984 to award grants to improve the quality of justice in state courts, and foster innovative, efficient solutions to common issues faced by all courts.