Treatment Court Staffing
Treatment Court Staffing
On July 7, 2014, the Circuit Court Budget Committee asked the Treatment Courts Coordinating Commission to consider proposing a model to address treatment court staffing needs across the judicial circuits. The Treatment Courts Coordinating Commission assigned this task to the Treatment Courts Committee. The Treatment Courts Committee formed a Treatment Court Staffing Work Group to study the issue. The work group examined all positions that administer, coordinate or preside over treatment court programs. This included a review of participant caseloads, number of programs, number of counties served, duties assigned and other drug/alcohol-related statistics for each jurisdiction. After discussions of several different approaches, ultimately a weighted caseload formula was developed which focuses on the average number of participants in approved treatment court programs, calculated annually from the Judicial Information System (JIS) and Show Me Courts (SMC). The report was revised and approved in 2016 to include the definition of program and included notes on use.
The weighted workload will be used by the Circuit Court Budget Committee in making decisions regarding treatment court administrators and treatment court commissioners. As such, for jurisdictions which currently have a state funded treatment court administrator or treatment court commissioner, and lose the administrator or commissioner through retirement, resignation or termination, after February 6, 2015, the staffing model will be followed to determine whether the position may be filled, regionalized or reallocated to another circuit.
The weighted caseload numbers will be reviewed annually to accurately reflect circuit needs. The weighted caseloads from calendar 2018 are available for review at the links below.