Monday, April 30, 2007
Mahoning County and Youngstown officials have many proposals to fix the county's criminal justice system:
Inmate management: Commissioner Anthony Traficanti seeks a federal grant for acquisition of an inmate management software system accessible by all computers in the county and municipal criminal justice systems to provide up-to-date information on the status of all county jail inmates and their court cases and their length of jail stay. "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it," county Administrator George Tablack noted.
Pretrial services: Traficanti and Commissioner John McNally recommend establishing a pretrial services department with screeners who would interview inmates and recommend to judges who does or does not need to be jailed under a high bond. County Prosecutor Paul Gains said the screeners could also determine whether a jail inmate has assets that could be used to pay a defense lawyer, rather than having to rely on a court-appointed lawyer at taxpayer expense. The county and state share costs for court-appointed lawyers for indigent defendants, and the county alone spent about 1.5 million last year for them, Traficanti said.
Reasonable bonds: If judges would set reasonable bonds to guarantee a defendant's appearance in court and protect the public, fewer people would be jailed, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum, presiding judge of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, said. "A bond that is excessive is not a bond; it's a ransom," he said.
Centralized assignment office: Establish a centralized court assignment office that would schedule for every court in Mahoning County, said City Prosecutor Jay Macejko, who spent more than seven years as an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor.
Fast tracks: Macejko would like to see a "fast track agreement" with the county prosecutor's office established that would take more felony cases from municipal court before the preliminary hearing and present them directly to the county grand jury.
Prosecutor changes: To reduce the number of pending cases, Macejko would assign one experienced county prosecutor to the most efficient judge -- Krichbaum -- and use the extra prosecutors to focus where docket reduction is needed in the other courts. He would eliminate the position of drug task force prosecutor, reassign him to docket reduction and require him to work full-time. And, to ensure that they're not "giving away too much," the county prosecutor or his chief of the criminal division should sign off on every plea agreement, Macejko said.