Improving the New York City arrest-to-arraignment system

In 1988, New York City’s arrestees were in custody waiting to be arraigned for an average of 40 hours, occasionally for more than 70. Moreover, they were held in crowded, noisy conditions that were emotionally stressful, unhealthy, and often physically dangerous. The city competitively awarded a contract to Queues Enforth Development, Inc. to address the problems of arraignment delays and the staggering associated costs of operating the arrest-to-arraignment system. The project team mounted an extensive two-year effort that included developing comprehensive, easy-to-use system-performance and cost models for the city’s four major boroughs and using the models to recommend sweeping operational and policy changes. The recommendations implemented since 1990 have saved the city tens of millions of dollars and have helped to lower average arraignment times to 24 hours or less.