Automated Misdemeanor Arraignment Setting

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

The Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), a Miami-Dade County Information Technology Department (ITD) mainframe application, was enhanced to include a new functionality involving the automatic setting of arraignment court hearings for misdemeanor type cases. The Miami-Dade County Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) is currently responsible for the setting of cases for their court hearings. Misdemeanor cases produce a large number of arraignment hearings due to the volume of misdemeanor cases created in Miami-Dade County on a yearly basis. Arraignment hearings are held to record the defendant’s plea of guilty or not guilty and to choose judge or jury trial if the plea is not guilty. Cases are set for an arraignment hearing based on the judge’s schedule and availability. The case must be set for an arraignment hearing before the expiration date otherwise the case will be dismissed with no prosecution of the crime. Before the automation of this function was implemented, approximately 2,300 cases were set manually. Enhancing the CJIS to automatically set misdemeanor cases for arraignment hearings has greatly reduced the workload of the COC and AOC and produced cost savings of approximately $150,000 annually. Automatically setting cases for an arraignment hearing in a timely manner will also significantly reduce the amount of cases dismissed due to the case expiration. This project also fulfills the mandated statute by the State of Florida transferring the responsibility of setting cases from the COC to the AOC in a smooth and seamless manner.