Gideon’s Promise Wins the 2017 Technology Innovation Award

We are happy to announce that Accenture has awarded the 2017 Technology Innovation Award to Gideon’s Promise. Gideon’s Promise was chosen by a panel of Atlanta’s leading technology professionals to receive more than $30,000 in our services, software, and cash to implement its technology vision.

Gideon’s Promise is on a mission to transform the criminal justice system. They are implementing this transformation by creating a movement of public defenders to provide equal justice for marginalized communities. Their values-based approach will allow Gideon’s Promise to transform the culture of indigent defense by helping public defenders provide better representation to the poor.

To that aim, Gideon’s Promise is creating and implementing the Defender Value Spectrum, which will measure public defender attitudes towards their clients and the impact those attitudes have on effective representation. The data they collect will allow them to quantify the values most important to clients during their legal representation and arm Gideon’s Promise with the ability to improve its services to our public defenders. To put the Defender Value Spectrum into action they need a relational database with remote access so they can collect, analyze, and report this data.

Implementing a cloud-based database with the power to fully manage the Defender Value Spectrum in a meaningful way will save Gideon’s Promise $45,000 annually in personnel costs alone. Currently, the organization collects all data manually — a task two staff members spend 20% to 25% of their work hours performing. Once the system is in place, Gideon’s Promise will reduce time spent generating reports by 20%, time spent emailing and making follow-up calls by 80%, and time spent collecting data manually by 100%.

Most criminal justice reform focuses on policy and process solutions rather than on the values that underpin the implementation of practices. Measuring the values of public defenders and gathering data from their clients to improve practice is groundbreaking work.

The new database will help Gideon’s Promise realign its work and put it on a path to achieving its vision of giving everyone in America equal access to justice. The goal in the next 20 years is to certify every public defender office in the country to a standard established by Gideon’s Promise. We are excited to work with Gideon’s Promise and to see their vision become a reality.