Conference Report: New York City's Criminal Courts are we Achieving Justice?

On October 18, 2003, more than one hundred professionals from the five boroughs of New York City came together to identify, evaluate, and begin to solve some of the complex problems embedded in the culture, operations, and practice in New York City’s Criminal Courts. The conference planners focused on five problems that have undermined the pursuit of justice in New York City’s Criminal Court system for decades. The first group, Arraignment Norms, Practices and Culture, targeted professionalism and justice at the first and often last court appearance for people arrested and charged with misdemeanor crimes in New York City. The second group focused on the collateral consequences of misdemeanor arrests and convictions, as well as the specialized and problem-solving courts becoming prevalent in the Criminal Courts. The third group, The Impact of Criminal Court on the Marginalized Person Who ”Use” the System, took on the highly charged, but fundamentally important, issue of the intersection of race and New York City’s Criminal Courts. The fourth group examined the post-arraignment processing of cases, and the fifth group explored standards, evaluation and monitoring of the many professionals who participate in the functioning of Criminal Court. The working groups discussed issues with workload, communication, facilities, calendar control, information sharing, case status reporting, and evaluation and monitoring.