NCJ Number
82302
Date Published
1981
Length
73 pages
Annotation
This technical assistance report analyzes the intake and screening of felony cases, use of the grand jury, use of statistics, and administrative operations in the office of the district attorney for Tuscaloosa County, Ala. and was based on data gathered during a 2-day site visit in 1981.
Abstract
An overview of the county's criminal justice system covers the district attorney's staff and jurisdiction, law enforcement agencies, and court procedures. The district attorney is in a disadvantaged reactive position because he is not responsible for filing charges in court. As in most other Alabama counties, this function has been transferred to law enforcement officers working through warrant magistrates. The technical assistance team recommended that the district attorney seek to have an immediate review of all felony arrests, allowing prosecutorial input at the earliest possible time. Other suggestions concerned improvements in the present warrant system and the intake process. The grand jury is the primary screening method now used by the district attorney. This study found that grand jury indictments are prepared in a primitive longhand method with no standard forms and that the grand jury meets in the already cramped office of the district attorney. The extremely large backlog of felony cases in Tuscaloosa County can be attributed to a general attitude of disinterest among bench and bar in moving cases and the courts being closed by judges in the summer months. Ways that the district attorney could remedy this situation are proposed, such as early plea bargaining and setting limits of the time arrest to final disposition of criminal cases. Other problems included totally inadeqate office space, an inefficient filing system, failure to collect any statistical information, and insufficient secretarial help. The review also noted that the full monetary and socialpotential of the child support enforcement law was not being accomplished and urged the district attorney to request additional court calendar time for such cases and investigate a computerized system to monitor payments and report delinquencies. A summary of the report's recommendations, a court workload study, and sample data collection forms are included.