NCJ Number
177411
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 36 Issue: 1 Dated: February 1999 Pages: 30-55
Date Published
1999
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This article examines differentiated case management and specialized dockets as ways to expedite the processing of criminal cases.
Abstract
The article describes an experiment on a modified differentiated case management process to determine the impact of the review and screening on case outcomes (e.g., type of case disposition and type of sentence) and system outcomes (e.g., amount of bed space consumed during pretrial and sentenced periods. An early screening process reduced the average length of time for court disposition, length of time for pretrial incarceration and the average sentence length for cases. A possible drawback of the process is the potential that expedited programs could indirectly influence net widening through their impact on the nature and content of a conviction record. In today's punitive environment, an increase in the number of convictions could indirectly increase the likelihood of future incarceration. Tables, appendix, notes, references