COUNSEL AT FIRST APPEARANCE (CAFA) JANUARY 2018
As you know, the Public Defender’s Office began our program
to provide counsel at all arraignments on January 2, 2018. This is being done
under the auspices of our CAFA Grant from the NYS Office of Indigent Legal
Services. I want to provide the Public Safety Committee with a brief summary of
our efforts thus far. The data supplied below covers the period of January 2nd
-28th.
The Public Defender’s Office was made aware of 67 total
criminal arraignments occurring in the Allegany County Courts during this
period. Our presence was not requested in 18 of those cases. Those 18 were
cases where appearance tickets had been issued upon arrest, and where bail or
release on recognizance (ROR) were not an issue. Our on-call attorneys were
contacted to appear in 49 cases. We appeared and covered the arraignments in
all 49. Of those, 30 clients were ROR’d; 17 clients were incarcerated; 1 was released
on pre-trial supervision from the bench; and 1 case was concluded at
arraignment.
Generally speaking, we have had excellent cooperation from
County Dispatch, the various police agencies and the local justice courts. Two
common reservations were expressed prior to inception of this program. One was
that there would not be enough arraignments to justify the procedures we were
putting into place. So far, the numbers belie this objection. Secondly, many of
the Justices were concerned that they would have to wait an inordinate amount
of time for the attorney to appear. The average wait time has been kept under
30 minutes. As always, I am available to answer any questions you may have.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara J. Kelley, Allegany County Public Defender
