NCJ Number
175896
Date Published
1996
Length
52 pages
Annotation
The New York State Unified Court System's criminal justice program is multifaceted and is designed to provide judges with the flexibility to address various types of cases in new and innovative ways, so that the courts can best manage the cases that come before them.
Abstract
The program is responsive to the needs and demands of crime victims, offenders, law enforcement agencies, and communities. The program's initiative falls into five broad categories. First, facilitated case processing implements measures that promote the fair and efficient adjudication of criminal proceedings. Second, community-based adjudication brings justice and related services back to neighborhoods. Third, proceedings that require a different approach involve the specialized processing of cases that require particularly careful monitoring or services that address the individual problem that precipitated the criminal conduct. Fourth, an emphasis on alternative criminal sanctions provides judges with a broad array of sanctions, so that appropriate offenders may be supervised effectively and less expensively in the community. Fifth, technological innovations focus on getting more information to judges and other courtroom participants quickly and accurately. This report profiles existing and new programs under the broad categories of programming. Taken together, the components of the Unified Court System's criminal justice program will promote the courts' ability to manage their varied and complex criminal caseload. 19 figures