September, 2009
The New York City Criminal Justice
Agency, Inc. (CJA),
is a not-for-profit corporation that provides a variety of criminal justice services under a contract with the City of New York. In order to perform these functions CJA maintains a computerized database containing arrest and defendant information, and case-processing and court-outcome data. Within the agency the Research Department uses this information to assist in the operational work of the organization, and for program-planning purposes both within and outside of CJA.
As part of its information services, the Research Department reports on Agency activity, arrest patterns, arraignment outcomes, and failure-to-appear (FTA) rates in Criminal and Supreme Court. This information, encompassing the entire range of Agency activities, is presented in our Annual Report series. The first Annual Report, which was published in February 2005, covered arrests during the last six months of 2003, beginning with the implementation of CJA's new recommendation system. (Data for previous years are available in the discontinued Semi-Annual Report series.) Subsequent issues cover a full calendar year of arrests, with FTA and release data for the previous year's Supreme Court cases. The one-year reporting delay for Supreme Court is necessary to allow time for these more serious cases to reach disposition. The Annual Report for 2007
with Supreme Court data for 2006 arrests, was released in December 2008.
CJA's research agenda covers a broad array of criminal justice policy concerns, ranging from studies of juvenile justice, domestic violence, and alternative-to-incarceration programs to participation in the creation of new City initiatives. For example, Research Department staff helped develop the targeting criteria for Operation Spotlight, a program designed to identify active offenders who repeatedly engage in nonfelony crimes, for court decision makers. The Department's specialized research projects are designed to evaluate or better inform criminal justice policies. Summaries of several current research projects are provided below.
The Day Custody and Transitional Case Management Programs:
CJA continues to study and provide other assistance to the Day Custody and the Transitional Case Management Programs of the Center for Alternative Sentence and Employment Services (CASES). The Day Custody Program (DCP), started in 2005 by CASES in conjunction with the New York City Department of Correction (DOC), is a program designed as an alternative to a traditional short-term jail for some cases of recidivist misdemeanor defendants prosecuted in the downtown Manhattan Criminal Court for misdemeanor crimes. Begun in August 2007, the Transitional Case Management (TCM) program is designed to provide comprehensive community-based services for defendants with serious mental illness, either through voluntary participation by DCP clients, or initially by court mandate as a substitute for DCP. CJA provides the City and CASES research reports on the volume and characteristics of program-sentenced cases and defendants; program completion rates; re-arrest rates; and the characteristics of the screened but not program-sentenced cases. In addition, CJA research staff participates in the TCM Stakeholder's Committee, an inter-agency group collaborating on ways to more effectively intercept and divert from the criminal justice system the seriously mentally ill accused of low-level offenses.
Queens County Supervised Release:
The Queens Supervised Release program is a new CJA initiative begun in August 2009, to offer judges in the Queens County Criminal Court community-based supervision at the arraignment court appearance for some felony-prosecuted defendants with a Moderate Risk CJA release recommendation. Supervised release offers judges an alternative to the current choices of recognizance release or the setting of bail in felony cases in which defendants meet a series of charge and criminal history criteria. The program criteria were derived from parameters set by the City, including the exclusion of violent felony crimes, and a goal of offering supervised release only in Moderate Risk cases with a higher likelihood of bail setting, and excluding defendants with the highest likelihood of pretrial re-arrest. The criteria developed for these latter program elements were based on statistical analyses undertaken by CJA's research department, and refinement and re-analysis of the eligibility criteria are ongoing. Other research activities underway are the development of a system for building a data set from which to report on defendant and case characteristics, and program compliance, during the implementation phase of this demonstration project, and to design a program evaluation.
Bail Making In New York City:
This study extends previous research on release and bail decisions, and their effects on case outcomes. The findings have been presented in a series of reports beginning in 2004. The research has now moved on to an examination of the form in which bail is posted—as cash or bond—in the four largest boroughs of New York City. Of particular interest is the current role of bail bondsmen, after decades in which they had all but disappeared in New York City . The form in which bail is posted is not computerized by the City's courts or detention facilities, so the project involves a labor-intensive effort to collect information from paper bail and bond receipts scattered among courthouses in each borough and the various Department of Correction facilities. Results from Manhattan and Brooklyn are presented in a report scheduled for release early in 2010. A citywide report is in preparation.
Criminal Justice Responses to Domestic Violence:
CJA is continuing its research on criminal justice policy responses to domestic violence. Domestic violence has become a focus of attention as demonstrated by new legislative initiatives, changes in police arrest practices, and in prosecutorial and court policies. These national trends are reflected in New York City, which has seen more frequent arrests in domestic violence cases, more vigorous prosecutions, greater use and enforcement of court orders of protection, and new court procedures and programs, including specialized courts to hear domestic violence cases. Using quantitative analysis along with field observation and in-depth interviews, CJA's research examines the court processing of domestic violence cases. CJA is currently examining factors leading to conviction in domestic violence cases in New York City.