The York County public defender's office will upgrade its antiquated system of managing cases and, in the process, receive its first state grant in at least 20 years, Chief Public Defender Bruce Blocher said.
With an approval from the county commissioners Wednesday, the office is free to move forward with a case management system, which has been planned for a year.
The existing system relies mainly on Microsoft Excel software, Blocher said.
The nearly $95,065 cost for the JustWare Defender system will be split between the county's Record Improvement Fund and grant money from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
The county portion comes from a fee charged on documents filed at the office of the recorder of deeds.
The project, which also allows document scanning, will let the office electronically track cases and store supplemental information. The county will be one of a few in the state to have the system.
But the biggest victory, Blocher said, is that the office won state grant money, despite repeated efforts to receive some. Normally, he said, the money goes to the prosecutorial side of the court system.
"I've talked to other (public defender's) offices, and they ask me how I did it," he said. "It doesn't happen that often."
Tara Mead, press secretary for the state commission, said grant funding is available for all programs that prevent crimes and strengthen communities. The money was likely disbursed to the office because it addresses system improvements, she said.