Task force pushes system mapping, assigned counsel pilot and data pulls to reduce pretrial jail stays

Tompkins County’s Criminal Justice/ATI Task Force spent its meeting focused on next steps to shrink the unsentenced jail population: system mapping to locate discretionary decision points, targeted data pulls from the Black Creek booking system, and outreach to judges and the district attorney’s office.

The Chair proposed creating a large flowchart during meetings that the county clerk could scan and preserve for iterative review. Members said mapping should identify where discretion exists (for example, whether an officer issues an appearance ticket or requests arraignment) and where law constrains action.

A judge on the panel described a pilot being tested to provide counsel at initial arraignments — including early-morning calls — and said having representation at arraignment could lower bail or increase releases. "If I have counsel present in court who can take the defendant under their wing and have a good bail argument, then I'm more inclined to release or at least have a lower bail," the judge said. Participants flagged logistical hurdles to covering 2–4 a.m. arraignments and proposed geographically divided on-call panels for assigned counsel.

Task-force staff described data plans: they will use the Black Creek booking system to analyze highest charge per booking and other booking-level fields but cautioned that access to criminal-history databases remains limited. Members said the initial data pull should identify the unsentenced population’s composition (repeat offenders, probation violators, or those unable to make bail) before designing targeted reforms.

OAR (bail-assistance) figures were discussed as context: members cited a recent year when OAR posted 58 bails and noted the average time for bail funds to be returned to OAR was 118 days — a fiscal pressure the task force said they will quantify further with updated data.

Next steps: the task force agreed to schedule a follow-up meeting after the CJATI monthly data review (fourth Wednesday) and to invite municipal judges, a DA representative and city police to describe differences in local practice before a public hearing.