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Reminder calls help to minimize arrest warrants

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Contributed by: Nichole Parmelly on 5/30/2008

Arapahoe County reports success of Court Notification Program.

Rates for people who fail to appear in court have decreased dramatically thanks to Arapahoe County's new Court Notification program.

The goal of the program is to minimize the number of defendants failing to appear in court by simply providing a court date reminder call. Between September 2007 through February 2008, the program placed 2,055 reminder calls (out of a total of 4,221 cases), and results showed that the failure to appear rate decreased from 22.7 percent to 17.6 percent.

"The most exciting statistic demonstrated that when defendants were spoken to directly, their failure to appear rate dropped to just 6.1 percent," said Sheriff Grayson Robinson. "These efforts have shown an increase in defendant appearances, thereby reducing failure to appear warrants, and ultimately lowering taxpayer expenditures in the criminal justice system."

By reducing the number of warrants issued to people who fail to appear in court, the Court Notification Program is reducing the number of people going to jail on failure to appear warrants, thus freeing up jail space for people committing more serious crimes.

The Court Notification Program is a result of the work of the County's Justice Coordinating Committee, a six-member committee appointed by the Board of County Commissioners in 2007 to provide the most efficient use of Arapahoe County Court and Jail space, as well as to address the short and long-term needs for both the courts and jail.

Members of the committee include Commissioners Jim Dyer and Rod Bockenfeld, Sheriff Grayson Robinson, Chief Judge William B. Sylvester, District Attorney Carol Chambers, Greenwood Village City Council Member Ron Rakowsky and Brad Comer, an attorney with Qwest and citizen member. The committee meets monthly.

Volunteers are needed to expand the Court Notification program to include all three Arapahoe County court locations. Volunteers typically provide fours of services per week making personal court date reminder calls to defendants involved in traffic and misdemeanor cases in County Court. Volunteers must also pass a Background Check. The County also is seeking bilingual volunteers who can make reminder calls in Spanish. If you are interested, call Volunteer Coordinator Val Purser at 303-738-7938.

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Nichole Parmelly

Denver , CO

Nichole Parmelly has posted 148 stories and 0 comments since joining on 7/27/2006. Nichole Parmelly 's average story rating is 5.

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