Automated Court Reminder System (ACRS)
Increasing the number of defendants appearing in court as scheduled
AST’s Automated Court Reminder System (ACRS) is a technology platform that sends multiple telephone and SMS/text reminders to recipients (defendants) prior to their court hearings. These reminders not only serve as a valuable customer service to citizens, providing details for upcoming court dates, times, and locations, but are important to pre-trial reform efforts, as jails deal with over-crowding. Behavior modification tools, such as call and text message reminders, help to significantly increase the chances of released, non-violent defendants returning to court for scheduled appearances.
AST has partnered with several cross-functional justice agencies in the City of Chicago, integrating each organization’s distinct records and case management applications to capture and organize data, perform updates, and trigger reminders. Additional integration enables citizen registration thru an online public portal, while an Integrated Voice Response (IVR) application performs all phone calls.
The text messaging component is a hybrid integration with Verizon’s Enterprise Messaging Cloud application. Features include dynamic message formatting, auto-responses, and comprehensive logging – with all messages traversing through an API Gateway for an additional layer of monitoring and security between the external and internal network firewalls.
The online portal is simple and user-friendly.
An increased percentage of court appearances enables cases to move smoothly through the justice process.
All messages traverse an API Gateway for an additional layer of monitoring and security between network firewalls.
ACRS is an automated reminder platform that reduces recidivism through technology and systems integration. The solution is scalable to meet the needs of criminal justice organizations of any size.”
Daniel DiMarco JPS Practice Director, AST LLC