Ahead of court reform announcement, attorneys say success hinges on resources

Five months after New York City unveiled court reforms meant to expedite cases and limit how long defendants are held at Rikers Island, New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman is slated to discuss how the initiative will inform future court governance and announce a major bail policy shift, a court official said.

More specifics about what Lippman plans to say during a Citizens Crime Commission of New York City forum Thursday morning were not available.

Back in April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Lippman outlined the first prong of a long-term commitment to curb incarceration and build confidence in the justice system called Justice Reboot. Part of the platform involved redesigning the summons form this summer and testing ways to bolster turnout at court and, therefore, reduce the issuing of criminal warrants for absences. A draft of the new summons form recently went to the printers. But fully phasing in the new form is not expected to get underway for a few weeks, the de Blasio administration said.

Justice Reboot also included criminal court reforms. Among them, it sought to isolate and expedite cases in which defendants have been detained in jail for a year or longer. Statistically, the courts saw success. But replicating these reforms for years to come – and avoiding the periodic restructurings pushed through by city courts when backlogs build – will hinge on increasing resources, both prosecutors and defense attorneys said.

Fiscally, this could be taxing for de Blasio, who recently suggested federal financing would be required to pay the $100 million price tag of another proposal, providing civil representation for those facing eviction in housing court. But ignoring how clogged courts contribute to crowding in jails and wariness of policing and prosecuting could also be politically costly, especially for a mayor who made criminal justice a centerpiece of his campaign.   

“If we’re going to arrest the number of people we arrest, we have to have more judges,” said Sam Braverman, an attorney who is part of the 18b panel representing indigent defendants in New York and parts of New Jersey. “For every judge you probably need two clerks, clerks in the courtroom plus law secretaries up in his chambers, you need four court officers, you need a court reporter. Every judge is like $1 million.”

Budgets were not mentioned in Justice Reboot’s launch. Instead, the initiative focused on a discrete group of cases in an attempt to pinpoint what caused delays before funneling more cases and finances into a long-term strategy, the administration and a court official said. A total of 1,427 cases were picked because they involved defendants who had been detained for at least a year. Officials aimed to schedule plea dates or trials for these cases within 45 days and conclude half of them by mid-October. Each borough staked out its own strategy, and according to a court official nearly 63 percent of cases flagged citywide – 899 in total – had been adjudicated as of Sept. 15. 

In Brooklyn, Matthew D’Emic, an administrative judge for criminal matters, employed a strategy of planning ahead in a bid to reach dispositions in cases before initial court dates. He has instructed his clerks to hold conferences with defense attorneys and prosecutors, including an executive in the district attorney’s office who had the authority to make decisions in negotiations, according to Eric Gonzalez, chief assistant to Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson. This gave the judge time to consider concerns a few weeks ahead of making a decision in court. D’Emic determines who is mentally fit to stand trial, so the conferences also doubled as a way to more rapidly adjudicate cases in which a defendant's mental health was in question. Of the 310 Brooklyn cases put in the Justice Reboot program, all but about 100 were concluded, Gonzalez said. Fifty went to trial, and of those, five resulted in acquittals. Because this new model proved so successful, Gonzales said D’Emic plans to continue directing older cases to pre-court conferences as well as those with more vulnerable defendants, such as youth and those with mental health concerns.

“It’s going to have a real impact on creating justice for the people who are before the systems – both the defendants and the victims of these crimes – that their cases are being moved swiftly,” Gonzalez said.  “I’m very optimistic, but clearly we would ask for resources to continue this successful program.” 

Odalys Alonso, chief assistant in the Bronx district attorney’s office, said the Bronx, like the other boroughs, exceeded its goal of concluding half of the cases flagged to expedite. Fresh off a court restructuring two years ago, Bronx court officials had already been in the habit of following up every week or two on cases that were at least nine months old. Chief Administrative Judge Robert Torres’ staff presided over Justice Reboot cases directly. Still, the extra scrutiny and coordination did not hurt, according to Alonso. But she also said resources were needed, including those used to enforce jury summons in the Bronx. About 30 percent of people show up for jury duty in the borough, according to Braverman.

“It will take one week, at least, to pick jurors on a robbery case. It’s difficult to get defendants up to court because there’s not enough court officers,” Alonso said. “It’s not something they’re going to fix in one year, but they can work on it.”

The Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan district attorneys either declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries. Carolyn Wilson, director at the New York County Defenders Services, said she’d noticed an improvement in Manhattan courts, but echoed calls for the government to commit more resources.

Braverman said he had not noticed marked changes, especially because city courts have pivoted between having individual judges schedule their own cases and having a more centralized system several times since he started practicing in them in 1992.

And a court official said simply hiring more judges would not do much unless more defense attorneys were available to stand before them.

The de Blasio administration said it was pleased with the progress. “From quickly scheduling trials to reforming the summons process, Justice Reboot is safely reducing unnecessary incarceration and modernizing the criminal justice system,” mayoral spokeswoman Monica Klein said in an email.

Beyond resources, attorneys cited other concerns: a lack of enforcement compelling New Yorkers to heed jury notices; flexible discovery rules that delay when defendants get information they need to decide on pleas; court and correction personnel staffing and shifting practices that limit how long needed parties are present in court; and courtroom culture.

Steven Zeidman, a CUNY School of Law professor who supervises law students’ defense work in court, disagreed with the perception that improvement would require resources, and described the problem as largely cultural. He noted that amid intense scrutiny of police use of stop and frisk, the Vera Institute of Justice conducted a two-year study that found black and Hispanic defendants are more likely to be held in jail before trial and be offered plea deals with prison sentences than whites and Asians facing the same charges.

“Precious little has changed from a year ago, two years ago,” Zeidman said of prosecutors’ and judges’ approach to bail and case processing. “The focus is solely on policing. And suddenly, what happens when the defendant is deposited at the court doors? … The judges are supposed to be the ones enforcing constitutional rights, making sure arrests are constitutional, making sure there’s enough evidence.”