Long sought tech upgrade poised to launch at Orleans criminal court

By Robert Stewart
Contributing Writer

(VeriteNews.org) — New Orleans criminal justice officials are racing to launch a new system for tracking criminal cases in the courts within the next two months. The upgrade is part of a $30 million project funded through federal pandemic relief aid to overhaul the outdated technology in the city’s justice and law enforcement infrastructure.

Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Clerk Darren Lombard is responsible for managing those case records, and he’s driving the effort to introduce the new case management system, or CMS.

A CMS is a platform that tracks, manages and moves documents for the court. The current system in place at Criminal District Court dates back to the late 1980s and relies heavily on paper records. The new CMS is expected to help minimize unnecessarily long court processes that can tarnish the public’s trust in the justice system, project stakeholders said. It is expected to come online within the next 60 days.

Paper records can be lost or damaged, and retrieving files manually can mean long wait times for attorneys and delays to court hearings. That can lead to people being held in jail longer and cases taking longer to resolve.

Criminal District Court Clerk Darren Lombard explains the city’s upcoming technology overhauls at his office on August 1, 2025. The overhaul is part of a $30 million joint effort between the city and local criminal justice agencies.
Photo by Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America

“I’ve been looking at this for a long time, so it can’t happen fast enough,” Lombard said of the new technology.

“The new system is going to be much different, and the eventual goal is to go totally paperless, which allows for the system itself to be very efficient.”

The CMS overhaul is part of a broader effort funded mostly through the American Rescue Plan Act funds granted to the city of New Orleans during the Biden administration. The large-scale investment, called the Justice Technology Modernization Project (JTMP), was approved by the City Council in late 2022.

Ultimately, the goal of the project is to integrate the internal systems of all the city’s criminal justice agencies – including the court, police, the city jail and the District Attorney’s office – streamlining communication between the agencies and eliminating redundant paperwork and data entry.

“The urgent need for this modernization is underscored by the critical challenges facing our city – jail overcrowding, surging crime, and a severe shortage of police officers,” said Gilbert Montaño, the city’s outgoing chief administrative officer, in an emailed statement. “We simply cannot afford the staggering human, financial, and public safety costs that stem from an outdated justice technology infrastructure.”

A previous attempt to modernize the city’s criminal justice technology cost millions and ultimately went nowhere. That effort, spearheaded by Tyrell Morris, then head of the Orleans Parish Communication District, involved creating new records management systems for the New Orleans Police Department and Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office. But the sheriff’s office never agreed to the upgrade. Launch of the NOPD system was repeatedly delayed over about two years. It never went live,
The Times-Picayune reported last year.

The $6 million contract was scrapped in 2023, shortly after Morris – then under fire after wrecking an agency car – resigned from the agency. Morris, who launched a failed bid for mayor this year, was later indicted for malfeasance in office and other charges related to actions he allegedly took in the wake of the crash. He has pleaded not guilty.

The New Orleans Office of Inspector General’s report, released in December, accused Morris of signing the contract without necessary approvals and altering agency documents to finance the project – charges he denied at the time. The failed project ended up costing nearly $3.8 million in public dollars.

In a Tuesday (Aug. 5) interview, Morris said that he believes had the city not scrapped the contract, the records management systems they were building would be live and functioning today.

“We were well on our way, we were probably a month away from go-live,” Morris said. “I believe, had we deployed, the department would have had – today – would have a well functioning records management system.”

Morris said the changing leadership in the NOPD, the scope of the work: replacing several different legacy systems, and continuously changing requirements led to the project delays.

Montaño said he is confident that the city will avoid the same pitfalls this time around.

“We understand the public’s concern, and I want to assure everyone that the Justice Technology Modernization Program has implemented robust measures to prevent a similar outcome,” Montaño said.

‘A once-in-a generation opportunity’
City Hall staffer Nathaniel Weaver directs the team that is now trying to solve the city’s inability to push and pull data effectively across agencies.

Weaver’s team has worked with key figures across the criminal justice system to first map out the way information flowed and identify how it could flow better. Then, they standardized the way that different agencies in the city refer to criminal offenses. Other changes have followed, Weaver said. Technology can’t fix every issue, but it can fix some of the delays and inefficiencies, Weaver said.

“It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” he said.

In the courts, the overhaul won’t just make tracking cases easier for judges and lawyers – it could make the criminal justice system more transparent for the public, too.

Currently, members of the public can’t access complete criminal case files online. The only available public-facing court records system – which is maintained on the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office’s website – does not include copies of motions or judgments, only brief minutes of court hearings.

Clerks in many other Louisiana parishes have already moved to better digitize their filing systems, offering a way for the public to more readily access information about court cases through an interface called Clerk Connect. Orleans Parish also plans to use Clerk Connect, which is set to include features such as automated notices for witnesses and victims, e-filing options and calendar viewing – upgrades from the current system.

Jesse Manley is the interim executive director at Court Watch NOLA, a nonprofit that trains volunteers to monitor the city’s courts – to identify unethical or illegal practices and inefficiencies. He said the public deserves better access to court proceedings.

“We have a community that is very concerned about how the criminal legal system is operating, that is interested in fairness and justice for defendants, for crime victims, [and] safety for everyone,” Manley said. “Seeing the information about what is going on in court, I think, is going to be really, really important to restoring public confidence in that system.”

Alexis Chernow, a deputy chief defender with the Orleans Public Defenders, said that her organization is hopeful about the new technology. The new system could help lawyers communicate more quickly with each other and allow for more flexibility in filing documents. Improving timeliness and minimizing error could help public defenders better fight for the rights of their clients, she said.

“The biggest problem is people not getting out of jail when they’re supposed to,” Chernow said.

There have been some delays in launching the court’s new CMS, which was originally scheduled to go live earlier this year. Lombard said the delays are related to the high volume of criminal cases and complexities in the system in Orleans Parish and the desire to get it right and serve as a model for other institutions.

“It’s taking a minute, but we want to make sure it’s done right,” Lombard said. “That’s the number one thing – to make sure it’s done right when we go live, that we have as little transition growing pains as possible.”

For the JTMP, two additional system overhauls are still expected to roll out this year. The NOPD is anticipating that the NOPD’s cloud-based record management system will go live in November, according to Reese Harper, director of communications with the NOPD.

And according to Weaver, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office is set to roll out a new jail management system by the end of this year. The sheriff’s office has already launched a new case management system as part of the JTMP last fall.

Weaver also said the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center is set to implement a new detention management system in 2026.

Montaño said he hopes the overhaul will bring about a criminal justice system where professionals have what they need, police officers aren’t tied up waiting for paperwork and the courts move swiftly with fewer errors.

“This isn’t just about efficiency,” Montaño said, “it’s about empowering our dedicated professionals to serve our community more effectively and justly.”

This article originally published in the August 11, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.