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Manhattan DA outlines efforts to reduce long-term stays in Rikers
6:22:15
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60 sec
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg discusses strategies to reduce long-term stays in Rikers Island:
- Focus on adjudicating cases for individuals who have been in Rikers for a year or more
- Reduced the number of Manhattan cases with over one year in pretrial custody from 503 to 342 (32% reduction) between 2022 and 2023
- Emphasis on moving cases quickly to preserve evidence and locate witnesses
- Now targeting cases with nine months or more in pretrial custody
Alvin Bragg
6:22:15
So in Manhattan a big driver of the population is how long someone is in Rikers.
6:22:22
And so we have focused over the past couple years on moving to adjudication people who have been Rikers for a year or more.
6:22:31
So at the start of 2022, there were five zero three people in pretrial custody on Manhattan case who have been in custody over a year.
6:22:41
And at the start of this year, there's three forty two.
6:22:43
So that's a 32 reduction.
6:22:45
And we're doing that by focusing on for all sorts of reasons.
6:22:49
For us, we want to move the case because the longer the case is going, have to find the witnesses.
6:22:55
Evidence may spoil the eight.
6:22:57
And obviously for the defense, if you're in Rikers, you move that case as well.
6:23:01
And so we've been able to really work with the courts and align around that.
6:23:04
And that's something now that we've gotten over number of folks with over a year, looking now at sort of nine months.
6:23:11
So looking there is one way that we're really focusing our energies.