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Photo provided by family Jeffrey Burda was killed in 1999 when he was attacked by three men, including one, Lacoy Adrow, who had been released from the Wayne County Jail without bond.

OVERCROWDED JAIL: Cases reveal program's flaws
Sluggish court worsens cycle of jail releases
Inmate kills man two weeks after release; sits in jail 21 months

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

Adrow Jail program unique Among the largest counties in Michigan, only Wayne County eases jail overcrowding by releasing felony suspects who can't post bail. Wayne County, with a population of 2.1 million, has 1,885 jail beds; Oakland County has 1,856, for 1.2 million people; while Macomb has 1,418 beds for 788,000 residents. "Other areas with a population this size have far more facilities than we do," Wayne County Jail Administrator Darryl F. Fordham said. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

   DETROIT -- Convicted murderer Lacoy Adrow waited 51 days last year in the Wayne County Jail to be sentenced to state prison, forcing jailers to release at least 51 other inmates -- one for each day that Adrow occupied a jail bed.
   Adrow's case crystallizes the frustrating cycle of jail releases, more crime and slow justice that leads to more releases. He was arrested in December 1999 on a drug-dealing charge, released from the jail and, less than two weeks later, took part in the murder of an ice-cream vendor. The case lasted 21 months until he was convicted and sentenced.
   The number of new cases entering Wayne County Circuit Court's criminal division has remained steady at about 15,000 each year during the past decade. But the number of trials -- each of which clears space in the jail -- has plummeted more than 50 percent in the same period.
   The court held 1,772 trials last year, while granting adjournments in 86,000 cases.
   So acute is the problem that Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan sued the court in January to force judges to hear cases that were being routinely postponed on the day of trial.
   Duggan is urging the circuit bench to adopt a sense of urgency toward jail overcrowding, which triggers the release of accused felons awaiting trial.
   "We need to be trying 3,000 cases a year. Nobody disagrees with me," Duggan said. "If we did that, we could eliminate early jail releases in this county."
   Instead, cases such as Adrow's, and hundreds of others charged with lesser crimes, routinely drag through the system. Adrow's punishment, 20 to 35 years, should have been handed down in two weeks, according to Wayne County Circuit Court policy.
   Overall, Adrow's case lingered on the court's docket for 624 days with seven adjournments adding six months to the length of the case.
   Although he eventually pleaded guilty to killing Jeffrey Burda, 29, in a deal to testify against two accomplices, he remained in the jail waiting for a judge to pass sentence. He took up valuable bed space for 51 days after the other two killers were dispatched for life to the state prison system.
   The slow process left Burda's family in Flint feeling victimized by the criminal justice system.
   The ordeal began when Adrow, 20, was granted a pass out of Wayne County Jail on Dec. 11, 1999, to free up bed space when he couldn't post bail on the drug-dealing charge.
   Two days before Christmas, Adrow and two others unsuccessfully tried to rip an automatic-teller machine from a wall.
   They then spotted Burda in a gas station on Detroit's east side refueling his ice cream delivery truck. Burda, who was engaged to be married, was working that route as a favor for a co-worker.
   The trio jumped Burda, who fought off their attempt to rob him and ran for the station. He was fatally shot three times.
   Burda's aunt, Barbara Kovacs, said the case seemed to drag on forever, with one unexpected adjournment following another.
   "My sister, Brenda, Jeff's mother, and I went to every hearing in court in Detroit. We would get up at 6 o'clock to get there by 9, and I don't know how many times we got there only to be told the case was adjourned," Kovacs said. "Sometimes, we would just sit and wait and wait for court to start, then they got started and then the judge would announce court was adjourned for the day."
   Court records show prosecutors asked for one delay. Two were for "court business" and the others were for unspecified reasons, the records show.
   Such delays are routine in Wayne Circuit Court's Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. Judges adjourned 715 cases the day they were supposed to go to trial last year, which sparked Duggan's lawsuit.
   As a result, an average of 420 cases remain each month on the docket beyond the state's 180-day deadline for speedy trials guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Since 1999, 2,634 cases involving people in the county jail lasted at least 180 days. Eight of those cases lasted more than two years.
   These delays meant that the cells were occupied by suspects far longer than planned, forcing jail administrators to release other suspects to the street without bond.
   Timothy Kenny, who became co-chief judge of the circuit court in January, acknowledged the court must do a better job.
   But doing so will require help from others, such as probation officers who prepare the presentence reports judges need in determining punishment, he said.
   Working with others in the criminal justice system, Kenny is trying to push the court to be more efficient.
   It couldn't happen soon enough as far as the Kovacs are concerned.
   "We became victims of the victim," said Barbara Kovacs' husband, Steve Kovacs, referring to the delays. "They just kept doing it to us over and over and didn't seem to care about us at all."