{"id":371,"date":"2011-07-27T09:46:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T13:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/?p=371"},"modified":"2011-07-27T09:46:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T13:46:18","slug":"state-cuts-to-the-court-system-likely-to-carry-a-price-tag-for-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/?p=371","title":{"rendered":"State Cuts to the Court System Likely to Carry a Price Tag for the City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Bernard O\u2019Brien, July 27, 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

New York State\u2019s budget for this year includes $170 million in savings from cuts to the Office of Court Administration, which has already resulted in the layoff of more than 400 state court system employees, or about 2.5 percent of the system\u2019s workforce statewide. But savings realized by the state from these cuts could mean millions of dollars in additional costs to New York City if the pace of processing criminal cases slows. That\u2019s because people under arrest may be spending longer periods awaiting trial in the city\u2019s jails\u2014additional jail time that will largely be funded by the city.<\/p>\n

The likelihood of slower court processing is almost certain. As state Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau<\/a> told the New York Times<\/em>, \u201cDelays are going to be more built into everything we do, unfortunately\u2026.If you are waiting for a trial, the trial that is ahead of you is going to take longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the fiscal effect on the city would show up in the Department of Correction\u2019s budget. More than 70 percent of inmates in city jails on Rikers Island and in borough-based facilities at any given time are detainees, meaning they are being held pending disposition of the criminal charges they are facing. The pace of criminal case processing in the courts is therefore a major determinant of the cost of running the city\u2019s jail system, where the department\u2019s total cost of incarcerating each inmate averages $387 per day.<\/p>\n

For those inmates convicted of serious crimes and sentenced to time in the state prison system, the time they will actually spend in state prison (at the state\u2019s expense) is reduced by the amount of time already spent in city custody prior to conviction and sentencing (almost entirely at the city\u2019s expense). So that means the longer prisoners remain in city custody during adjudication of their cases, the larger the city\u2019s\u2014and the smaller the state\u2019s\u2014share of total imprisonment costs.<\/p>\n

As reflected by the trend line in the graph below, the average amount of city jail time deducted from the state prison sentences of convicted felons from the city has already been moving upward in recent years, rising from 5.5 months in 1994 to 9.6 months in 2010. This trend is consistent with the slower pace of deciding some cases in recent years. While the Office of Court Administration\u2019s own standards call for felony cases to be decided within six months from the date of filing, the percentage of felony dispositions in the city failing to meet that standard grew from 23 percent in 1994 to 37 percent in 2010.<\/p>\n

Increases in jail time translate into additional city costs. For example, if slowdowns in case processing result in another month being added to the average time state prison-bound inmates spend in city jails, IBO estimates that the city would incur about $15 million in additional annual expenses at the Department of Correction. In addition, longer periods of incarceration for the thousands of detainees held temporarily in city jails each year but not ultimately destined for state prison\u2014those held on misdemeanor charges, alleged felons ultimately acquitted, etc.\u2014would also result in additional corrections costs borne by the city.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Besides potential increases in corrections department costs, the hit to the city\u2019s budget from delays in criminal case processing could show up in other places as well. For example, police overtime expenditures could be driven up if cutbacks in court staff result in a longer arraignment process, with police officers spending additional time processing arrests. According to a number of recent press accounts<\/a>, the time from arrest to arraignment has already increased.<\/p>\n

So when it comes to cutbacks to the court system to help close the state\u2019s budget shortfall, some of Albany\u2019s savings may come at New York City\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Bernard O\u2019Brien, July 27, 2011 New York State\u2019s budget for this year includes $170 million in savings from cuts to the Office of Court Administration, which has already resulted in the layoff of more than 400 state court system employees, or about 2.5 percent of the system\u2019s workforce statewide. But savings realized by … Continue reading State Cuts to the Court System Likely to Carry a Price Tag for the City<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibo.nyc.ny.us\/cgi-park\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}