New York Courts Meet Elusive Goal: From Arrest to Arraignmen​t in Under 24 Hours. From Arraignmen​t back to Rikers in 12 hours, from Rikers to trial in 6 hours, from trial to jail in 1.

The NY Times beat us again – New York Courts Meet Elusive Goal: From Arrest to Arraignment in Under 24 Hours. But, again, only Marquel, TPVs Times correspondent found out the real record: To jail in minutes. Swift and certain justice or injustice as long as it’s swift.

Marquel knew the first problem here is that it was over twenty years since New York’s highest court ordered 24 hour arraignment. And we still don’t have them (more on that later). To make matters worse (I was going to say embarrassing but I’ll bet not one reader has ever seen a cop embarrassed), it’s been more than FIFTY years since the U.S.supreme court ordered essentially the same thing!

Holy crow, I thought, who do I talk to first. I went to Rikers to talk to the director, effectively the warden.

“Let me ask you,” I asked her, “does this mean everybody gets to a judge in 24 hours?”

“Heavens no.” She said.

“Why not?” I asked, “the story seems to say so.”

“Not if you read the story carefully,” she said.

“Ah,” I said, “so that’s the secret. You have to read it carefully”

“I’m afraid so. The 24 hours is an average. For every 12 hour arraignment, there might be a 36 hour one. For four 2 hour arraignments there might be one 112 hour arraignment.” She explained.

“That’s four days in jail without even having a chance to plead, to get bail, or see a lawyer” I exploded. “And this is the good news? I wonder what the bad might be.”

“I suppose that depends on who you talk to. The courts want things to move on. The cops, not always, so they can still keep you locked up for  days if they take another four right to court. See?” She explained, “and the private jails are madder than hornets at anything that might deprive them of their per diems.”

The private jails. What could be their interest? Arraignment happens before prison time. How could it affect their bottom line?

I went upstate and found a talkative warden.

“Does it matter to you whether inmates stay in Rikers Island longer than 24 hours?” I asked.

“You bet it does,” he said, pounding his fist on the table. “It’s a violation of federal and state judicial orders.”

Wow a warden with principles. And he knew his precedents! “Are you a lawyer?” I asked.

“Hell no, sanitation’s my game.” He asserted.

“Sanitation?” I wondered.

“Twenty years driving a truck in the Bronx,” he said proudly. I half expected him to  show me his sanitation medals if such things exist.

“So how does that work, garbage man to warden?” I asked politely.

“You just explained it,” he said laughing robustly and again pounding his desk. I looked at him askance. “I’m still hauling garbage, get it?” He said.

So no lawyer and few principles. I’d read him wrong. “So, what’s the deal with speedy justice?” I asked him. “What do you care? You still get them in the end.”

“Aha!” He shouted, pounding again. “That’s not true. If some scum spends weeks in Rikers then spends three years in jail letting his case string out, that’s three years I don’t get my per diem.”

“Your per diem?” I asked.

“Sure. This garbage pays by the day. I used to just dump it cause what’s the profit in keeping it?” He explained. “But this human garbage pays almost a grand a day. And I get a percentage of that personally.”

I still didn’t see hour jail time matters. So I asked, “how does jail time matter?”

“Time off,” he said. “If our hypothetical prisoner gets ten years, they deduct the three years from his sentence. I get a 30% effective cut from his stay.”

“I see,” said I, “so you like speedy arraignment, speedy trials, and speedy sentences.”

“Speedy long sentences, ” he corrected me, “but generally yes. It’s in the constitution you know.”

“I do know,” I assured him. “”How about solitary?”

“It’s a wonderful thing” he said smiling. “I wish I could put them all in solitary.”

“”Nothing in the constitution about solitary,” I noted.

“Nothing against it either,” he observed”

“Well there’s the cruel and unusual clause,” I suggested.

“Ha!” He said and started laughing deeply. He couldn’t get a word out.  Finally, he sputtered, “it’s not unusual here!”

I left, thinking that maybe some prisoners might do better staying in jail longer and prison shorter. Things aren’t always what they seem.

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It could take you seconds to learn what Marquel thinks. Follow him on Twitter @MarquelatTPV.