De Blasio: Clearing Court Backlog Will Shrink Rikers Jail Census
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says fixing bureaucratic backlogs in the courts will reduce the number of people locked up in the troubled Rikers Island jail complex.
City officials announced Tuesday that pre-trial inmates with cases pending more than a year will have a court date scheduled in the next 45 days.
The Rikers inmate population has shrunk by half in the past 20 years to about 10,000. But a few hundred inmates spent more than 270 days waiting for trial there last year.
De Blasio said special teams will use technology to target such cases.
The backlog reduction plan and proposed changes to the criminal summons system for low-level offenses are among reforms designed to make the system fairer and more transparent.
De Blasio: Clearing Court Backlog Will Shrink NYC Jail Census
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is receptive to the mayor's plan to reduce the inmate population at Rikers Island.
"I think what was set out is positive, and we support it," she told WCBS 880's Ginny Kosola.
She is offering her own plan to create a bail fund so people accused of minor offenses can be released.
Mark-Viverito said a pilot program proves it works.
"For the people that participate in that bail fund, they have a 95-percent attendance rate at court dates," Mark-Viverito said. "So that money then gets replenished, so this is a wise investment."
Her proposal is outlined in the City Council response to the mayor's budget.
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