Criminal Justice System
The Virtual Courtroom
Around 500,000 jurors are summoned to participate in trials each year. Those attending Crown Court trials will now be able to take a ‘virtual tour’ of court to familiarise themselves with its layout and procedures by logging on to www.cjsonline.org.
The tour uses text, pictures and sound to guide prospective jurors through the physical environment of a court building and courtroom, and introduce them to the proceedings that they would go through when undertaking jury service. The virtual tour will be highlighted in every summons issued by the Jury Central Summoning Bureau.
The tour is hosted on the CJS Online website, www.cjsonline.org, which provides an integrated information and gateway service to the six main criminal justice agencies - the Court Service, Prison Service, Police Service, Probation Service, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Lord Chancellors’ Department - as well as related organisations such as the Youth Justice Board and Victim Support.
CJS Online provides information for all those involved in the criminal justice system, whether professionally or as volunteers; also for citizens who become involved as jurors, victims or witnesses, or those simply seeking general information about the criminal justice process.
Also launched today are microsites, hosted on CJS Online for 5 Area Criminal Justice Strategy Committees (ACJSC) - County Durham and Darlington, Dorset, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, and Merseyside. The sites, which have been produced in association with the 5 areas, are designed to enable the citizen to access information about their local ACJSC. The sites will be rolled out nationwide over the next few months.
CJS-Online have also published a two-page newsletter (in Word format) giving details of these and other projects currently underway.
Last update: Monday, September 25, 2006