NCJ Number
146632
Date Published
1993
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This study assessed the status of the U.S. Courts National Fine Center's (NFC) development and operations.
Abstract
The report describes how NFC is to operate, examines the status of NFC's operations in its five pilot districts, and determined whether NFC is likely to meet its original objectives. The NFC is being developed within the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Its goal is to centralize and streamline the Federal Government's procedures for collecting, accounting for, and reporting criminal debts. It will also centralize payment of restitution to crime victims and produce national statistics on the results of its debt-collection activities. Eventually, NFC will link with the automated systems of Federal agencies involved in the collection process, further improving coordination among government agencies. The study concludes that although NFC is scheduled to be fully operational in all 94 judicial districts by late 1995, full implementation will probably be delayed. NFC originally scheduled five pilot districts to be integrated by December 1992; however, as of May 1993, only the first pilot district -- the Eastern District of North Carolina -- had been integrated with NFC. NFC has finished training district staff to use the new system and installed the system in the four remaining pilot districts. NFC is working on developing its automated systems. NFC's disbursement system is not operational, and NFC continues to test the system. The study could not determine whether NFC will meet all objectives set by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, because NFC is still in its developmental stage. Researchers found that NFC is not meeting the objective that requires the control of unauthorized access to the database. Although limited to one district's account information, the NFC database is operational, and debtor account information is vulnerable to fraud and misuse. Appended example of an automated judgment and commitment order and a monthly statement of account and payment coupon