NCJ Number
76095
Date Published
Unknown
Length
116 pages
Annotation
This study of New York's Bronx criminal justice system sought to determine where the resources of time, people, and money should be concentrated in the system to ensure the optimum quality of justice.
Abstract
The Bronx County Criminal Court was selected as the study site. Only activities of the criminal justice system from booking through disposition at the criminal court were included. Consequently, costs associated with arraignment and interim court appearances, as well as other activities, were not addressed. Three types of data were required to identify the cost of processing cases, including data on the average frequency of each type of court appearance for each of the offense categories, data on the cost of conducting the activities required to support each type of court appearance, and data on the relative proportion of time consumed by each type of court appearance. Data were obtained from published sources, such as the executive budget, for fiscal year 1977-78. Cost analysis was conducted for three factors: agency, hearing type, and offense. Overall, the data reveal that no major differences exist in the costs of processing cases for different types of offenses or in the costs of processing cases which result in different types of dispositions, although cases resulting in a fine at arraignment or in probation tend to be slightly more expensive than average. The major factor influencing the cost of processing a case is the number of court appearances required. Therefore, the study suggests that all feasible steps should be taken to reduce the number of court appearances. Possible solutions include requiring judges to be on the bench between certain hours, reducing the number of trials whenever possible, and imposing penalties on criminal justice agency representatives who are not prepared to proceed when a case is called. The study includes 61 exhibits.