Judge Joseph Hensley represents Missouri at Criminal Case Management Summit

(From Circuit Court of Jasper County)

Judge Joseph Hensley recently represented Jasper County and the State of Missouri at the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrator’s Midwest Region’s Effective Criminal Case Management in a Post-Pandemic World: A Leadership Summit for Courts and Their Communities. 

The Summit was held October 2-4 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Judge Hensley was one of five Judges and two state court administrators selected by Chief Justice Mary Russell to represent Missouri at this year’s summit. 

Many jurisdictions continue to experience disruptions to traditional court practices due to the pandemic, staffing shortages, and related issues that introduced or exacerbated delays in case processing and continues to present challenges for a justice system that guarantees rights to due process and a speedy and public trial. 

The purpose of the Summit was to revisit traditional case processing practices to ensure effective criminal case management in this new era. The summit consisted of a dynamic mixture of plenary sessions and state team planning sessions designed to create a case flow management action plan for each state. The Summit was sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) Initiative.