Mayor de Blasio is taking another step in his effort to reform the troubled Rikers Island jail complex. De Blasio and the state's chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, have announced a plan called Justice Reboot, designed to reduce the amount of time inmates spend at the jail complex awaiting trial.
According to the Times, as of late March more than 400 people had been locked up for more than two years without being convicted of a crime.
"Basically there are inefficiencies at all levels," said New York Times reporter Michael Schwirtz who first reported the story."Overall the city hopes to implement a new plan to allow them to track these cases and allow better coordination between judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys."
Elizabeth Glazer, director of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, is part of that effort. She said officials are now working to figure out why such a backlog exists, and how they can quickly reduce it. Glazer said there are many factors that can hold up trials.
"It can be whether witnesses actually show up in court, to whether we have sufficient numbers of jurors in each borough," she said. "It's a whole array of things both known and unknown." Glazer spoke on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show Tuesday.
"Judges can't do this alone. Prosecutors can't do this alone. The mayor's office certainly can't do this alone. So we're very optimistic that with this program and in the coming months that we can substantially address the backlog of cases," said First Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks.
As part of the plan, the city will schedule court dates for cases over a year old, within the next 45 days. They'll also work to improve the summons process.
With The Associated Press
