NCJ Number
77508
Date Published
1979
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This study analyzes the 1979 pretrial service program conducted by the Suffolk County Probation Department (New York) and offers recommendations for systematic improvements based on the program's stated objectives.
Abstract
In 1978, the department conducted 4,775 legal aid status interviews; 8,202 full release on recognizance interviews; and 2,983 automatic exclusion interviews. Automatic exclusion involves exclusion from full interview services and from a recommendation to the court for release. An analysis of the 660 automatic exclusions between April 1, 1979 and June 23, 1979, shows that 89.4 percent of these cases received this treatment because of outstanding warrants, violations of probation, residence outside of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, no permanent address, or insufficient time in the area because of recent incarceration or a transient lifestyle. The rest were excluded for refusing to participate, intoxication, and other reasons. About 95 percent of the persons released on their own recognizance between January and June 1979 returned to court of their own volition. One recommendation suggests that the automatic exclusion criteria should be modified so that full reports are conducted on all Suffolk County residents regardless of the time at their present address and on all residents of Long Island, New York City, and Westchester. Other recommendations call for a revalidation of the risk assessment instrument to maximize the return-to-court rate, an advocacy role for the probation department in its attempt to find relatives to post bail for certain clients and to obtain reductions in bail where appropriate, and the design of a sophisticated evaluation component that would allow continuous validation and reporting of release criteria. Other findings and recommendations, data tables, flow charts, and a six-item bibliography are included.