During the past many months, Wellsville Regional News has noted that a defendant was detained for CAP arraignment. So…to the everyday citizens reading the site…what IS CAP arraignment. On Tuesday, I reached out to Allegany County Sheriff Scott Cicirello who provided a helpful explanation.
WHAT IS CAP? The response from the Sheriff -
CAP or Centralized Arraignment Part, is an OCA (Office of Court Administration) approved program where the majority of criminal arraignments are held at one location in Allegany County. With recent legislative changes in NY, arraignments now require counsel to be present. That was problematic, especially during late night and early morning hours. Basically, the District Attorney, Public Defender and Probation had to have personnel on call 24/7. It became clear to all involved that we needed to explore options to increase efficiency. CAP is up running in several Counties across NY. The stakeholders in Allegany County went to Steuben County and observed their CAP in operation. Then there were multiple meetings with stakeholders including OCA, conflict defender, public defender, probation, local magistrates, district attorney, local law enforcement and my office. We then developed standard operating procedures and a framework for how arraignments would be conducted. All involved signed a MOA outlining requirements and responsibilities. The plan was then approved by OCA, County admin and the legislature. This was approximately a two-year process.
Arraignments are now completed at the Allegany County Jail. One at 8 am and one at 6 pm. Judges are scheduled ahead of time, mostly on a rotational basis. Corrections Officers assist with each of the arraignments. Representatives of the DA, public defender and probation are notified by Sheriff’s Office Employees when an arraignment is scheduled. Local law enforcement make an arrest, and transport to the jail for “holding” pending the next arraignment. This allows officers to drop off a defendant and get back to their patrol areas eliminating extended down time related to holding pending arraignments. Then the officers send the paperwork required for the arraignment prior to the scheduled time. This also allows the stakeholders holders the ability to schedule personnel at specific times eliminating the need for being on call.
Traditional arraignments still take place if the local court is in session, however, the vast majority now take place in CAP. So far, we are averaging 40 arraignments per month.
The success of this program is not possible with the extra work of our corrections officers and the commitment of the County Administrator and legislature.
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