Juvenile Court, County Attorney, and Juvenile Probation Expedited Case Process

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The Expedited and Differentiated Case Process is a case processing practice improvement that drastically changed the course of youth delinquency cases in our county. This change reduced the length of time from arrest to the initial court hearing by accelerating the review of complaints. Case processing times decreased significantly from 66 days to 18 days. This reduction in days from arrest to the initial court hearing reduced re-arrest rates for our youth, enhanced community safety, reduced victimization in the community, and created a more efficient case processing system. The core concepts of adolescent development tells us that a timely and understood response to problem behaviors are a key element of effective behavior change. Based on this, the time between arrest and the initial court appearance needed to be shortened to provide a more immediate response to the youth’s behavior. This took a collaborative approach by many departments including the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO), Maricopa County Juvenile Probation (MCJPD), Maricopa County Superior Court Administration, and Maricopa County Clerk of Court. Together this group accomplished an incredible task in less than six months, which is no simple task in the 4th largest trial court jurisdiction in the nation.