San Fernando Courts to Launch Plan for Fast Arraignments

San Fernando court officials Dec. 14 will inaugurate the first phase of a program designed to speed the criminal process for felony defendants and reduce Los Angeles County’s huge jail population.

Under the program, Municipal Court judges will conduct Superior Court arraignments immediately after preliminary hearings except in death penalty cases. Now, inmates ordered to stand trial in Superior Court must wait in jail two weeks before making what are usually perfunctory court appearances for their arraignments.

“It will mean defendants make one less trip from jail and will lead to a reduction in jail overcrowding because those waiting for trial will get their day in court 14 days sooner,” said Municipal Judge Michael S. Luros, supervising judge in San Fernando.

Once arraigned, the defendants can be released from jail if bail has been set and they can afford to post it.

If it proves successful, the “instant arraignment” program will be implemented countywide, said Presiding Superior Court Judge Jack E. Goertzen. The program is scheduled to start in Van Nuys on Jan. 1 and downtown Feb. 1, said Presiding Municipal Judge George W. Trammell.

But Billy Desmond Webb, head of the San Fernando branch of the district attorney’s office, said he is not convinced the program will significantly reduce the jail population. The number of County Jail inmates skyrocketed from 8,000 to more than 22,000 in less than a decade.

“Nothing has been presented to me besides the fait accompli,” Webb said. “I hope they have something to back this up and it’s not something they just pulled out of the hat.”

The “instant arraignment” program is part of a plan hammered out in a series of late-night negotiations between county and state court officials. It was approved last week by the Board of Supervisors.

With full implementation of the plan--which includes assigning 12 more judges to hear criminal matters in Superior Court, as well as about 35 additional deputy district attorneys and about 35 public defenders--the county hopes to avoid enforcement of federal court orders stemming from a longstanding lawsuit regarding jail crowding brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the county.

The federal orders, which are to become effective in the next two months, would limit the county’s largest jail, Men’s Central in downtown Los Angeles, to 110% of its capacity--which could trigger the early release of some inmates. The orders also would require the Sheriff’s Department to provide a bus seat for each inmate. Now, inmates are packed into the aisles of buses that transport them to court appearances.

The seating requirement would cause widespread disruption in state court schedules because the Sheriff’s Department would have to bus inmates to court in shifts, officials said.

U.S. District Judge William P. Gray issued the orders in 1979 when the ACLU first won its jail-crowding suit.

Gray did not enforce them, however, since the ACLU and county seemed to be working together to ease the crowding. But at the ACLU’s behest last month, Gray threatened to order the county to fully comply.

Tuesday’s action by the supervisors was expected to head off enforcement since it was endorsed by John Hagar, the ACLU attorney in the jail-crowding suit.

Trammell said court officials had been looking for ways to ease the crowding since a countywide pilot program that began July 15 and ended Oct. 15 failed to have a significant impact. Under the program, in which civil judges heard criminal cases, only about 125 beds were made available out of a 9,000-bed capacity.

The idea of instantly arraigning defendant inmates, which has not been tried elsewhere in the state, arose as a result of a similar program that began in the downtown criminal courts in the spring, Goertzen said. In that program, those ordered to stand trial in Superior Court are arraigned four days after a preliminary hearing.

San Fernando was chosen as the first courthouse to implement the program because a large number of those ordered to stand trial there are in jail, Trammell said.

About 85% of the 67 defendants ordered to trial in San Fernando Superior Court in October were incarcerated, compared to 51% of the 141 in Van Nuys and 79% of the 843 downtown, said Marian D. Scritchfield, deputy court administrator for the Los Angeles Judicial District.

Once the program goes into effect, the usual 14-day period between the preliminary hearing and arraignment will be replaced by a brief recess to give prosecutors and defense lawyers a chance to file motions and complete paper work. After arraignment, a pretrial conference must be scheduled within 15 days, with the trial scheduled 45 days later.

Prosecutors have traditionally used the period between the preliminary hearing and arraignment to amend the criminal complaint. For instance, if a judge dismisses a count that a prosecutor has filed against a defendant, the prosecutor can refile the charge in time for the arraignment.

Under the new program, the prosecutor will be under pressure to quickly decide whether to refile, although charges may be filed until the pretrial conference, said Superior Court Judge Robert D. Fratianne, supervising judge in San Fernando.

“One of the major problems with this program is it’s going to be difficult for the prosecution side,” Fratianne said. “District attorneys are going to have to make snap decisions.”

Fratianne said the program will be reviewed after 60 days to determine its effectiveness and iron out any problems.

Bitner R. Winckler, head of the San Fernando branch of the public defender’s office, said he did not anticipate difficulties.

“It benefits defendants because it protects their right to a speedy trial,” Winckler said.

But Carl Jones, executive director of the Alternate Defense Counsel, a private group of attorneys that functions as a second public defender’s office, expressed some reservations.

“In those cases where the possession of a preliminary hearing transcript is an essential prerequisite to proceeding with the case, speeding up the arraignment will be of no value unless you speed up the preparation of the transcript,” Jones said.

Transcripts must be filed within 10 days of the preliminary hearing and are prepared by court reporters in their spare time.

Even if defendants do not actually get to trial sooner, the program will improve security on the buses used to transport inmates, said Capt. Jerry L. West, commander of the Sheriff’s Department’s transportation bureau. West said the buses will not be as crowded since each defendant will take one less trip from jail to the courthouse.