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David Coates/ The Detroit News Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan says 50 felonies a week and more than a murder a month are committed because of early release.

OVERCROWDED JAIL: Public safety at risk
Prosecutor, courts tackle case logjam
Effort to streamline process expected to ease jail crowding

By Ronald J. Hansen, and Norman Sinclair / The Detroit News

Daniel Mears / The Detroit News Wayne Circuit Co-Chief Judge Timothy Kenny has assigned two jurists to exclusively schedule trials for inmates languishing in jail because they can't post bond. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

   DETROIT -- After decades of taking quiet and sporadic steps to ease crowding at the Wayne County Jail, officials throughout the criminal justice system are making the issue a top priority.
   The first task, officials agree, is reducing the logjam of felony cases in the criminal division of Wayne Circuit Court, the biggest single reason for jail overcrowding as defendants languish in cells waiting to get to court.
   Among the new procedures:
   * Prosecutor Michael Duggan has streamlined the process for prosecutors and defense lawyers to quickly dispose of minor felony cases through plea bargains to avoid wasting court time.
   * Wayne Circuit Court Co-Chief Judge Timothy Kenny has assigned two jurists to exclusively schedule trials for inmates sitting in jail because they can't post bond.
   * Five judges who handled only arraignments, usually in the mornings, will now be required to also try a combined 100 cases monthly.
   These and other measures are intended to end a court-ordered program that forces Wayne County Jail officials to release suspects who can't post bond before trial to make room in the downtown jail.
   "The jail-release problem is a public-safety crisis," Duggan said. By his office's own count, "there are 50 felonies a week and more than a murder a month being committed because of the early release of prisoners. It's a crisis that has to be stopped. That means every judge in this building needs to be trying jail cases every day until the releases stop. Anything short of that isn't worth talking about."
   Concern over the court's performance prompted Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Maura Corrigan to meet recently with Kenny and Duggan to discuss reforms, including setting fixed schedules for the number of trials that must be heard each month.
   Kenny and Wayne County Department of Community Justice officials who are devising the strategy to reduce jail overcrowding agree that court-wide changes coupled with cooperation by the independently elected judges are key to reform.
   "We have to take a fresh look at how we prioritize and schedule cases," said Kenny, who became a chief judge in January. He said the court as a whole has to maximize judicial time and limit jail crowding.
   "Anything that could cut the time the accused is going to be in jail is going to be helpful to us. ... It's helpful to everybody," Kenny said.
   Among other changes:
   * The two-week period to move a case from arraignment in 36th District Court to Wayne Circuit Court will be cut to one week, saving 150 jail beds each year. That practice will eventually include all the county's district courts.
   * Judges will no longer be allowed to postpone sentencing for weeks or months after conviction. The sentencing time limit of 14 days after conviction will be cut to 11 days. To make that time frame possible, probation officers for the state's Department of Corrections must prepare timely presentence reports required for sentencing.
   * The court now treats probation violators differently. Instead of arresting violators on technicalities, and taking bed space at the jail, the court issues an order requiring them to show up in court.
   Requiring judges to handle both arraignments and trials also addresses one of Duggan's main complaints: Trials in Wayne County dropped markedly in the past decade though the caseload remained about the same. Duggan has also pushed the court to end a widespread practice of canceling trials on the day they were to begin.
   In mid-November, Duggan and the court instituted a program to make defendants and their lawyers aware of evidence against them and the likely sentences for convictions. The result is that 35 percent of the new felony cases in Wayne County now end in guilty pleas and probation for defendants.
   The procedure saves jail space and additional court hearings while allowing prosecutors and police to focus on the more difficult cases from the start. It also frees police officers to return to duty rather than sitting in the court's hallways. In the first three months, the program saved police from testifying at least 1,400 times.
   "This program has been successful beyond our wildest dreams," said Karen Fort Hood, the county's presiding judge.