Policy Recommendations Regarding New York City’s Criminal Courts Submitted to the Mamdani Administration

SUMMARY

The Criminal Courts Committee (Eric S. Fieldman and Jeffrey D. Linehan, Co-Chairs) sent a transition memo to the Mamdani Administration with recommendations regarding New York City’s criminal courts. The recommendations include: that emergency medically supervised withdrawal and stabilization sites be designated at hospitals or other drug treatment facilities that can accept willing defendants for immediate medically supervised withdrawal care and stabilization from the arraignment courtroom; that MOCJ organize a series of stakeholders’ meetings and courtroom visits to examine the state of criminal court arraignments, collect data, identify problems, and address systemic issues that arise at this integral stage of the criminal court process; continued law enforcement training and collaboration with mental health professionals to respond to emergency situations involving emotionally disturbed persons, including continuation of the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (“B-HEARD”) program which deploys FDNY EMTs to respond to nonviolent incidents; continued support for the NYPD Domestic Violence Officer Program and exploration of whether social workers and other professionals, in conjunction with NYPD, can be engaged in other non-criminal family incidents; implementation of strategies and systems for improved flow of discovery information; expansion of affordable housing to persons released from incarceration or displaced from their residence by orders of protection, and creation of supportive housing for persons engaged in drug treatment and mental health recovery judicial diversion programs; and improving use of complete digital court records to improve efficiencies where current court records are maintained partially in paper files and partly in a database maintained by the New York State Office of Court Administration such that case records are not readily available to assigned prosecutors and defense counsel of record.

REPORT

REPORT BY THE CRIMINAL COURTS COMMITTEE

RECOMMENDATIONS RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED
TO THE MAMDANI ADMINISTRATION REGARDING
NEW YORK CITY’S CRIMINAL COURTS

On behalf of the Criminal Courts Committee (the “Committee”) of the New York City Bar Association (“City Bar”), we write to introduce ourselves and to share policy recommendations to the Mamdani Administration with respect to New York City’s criminal courts.

Our Committee consists of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, private attorneys, court attorneys and law students who study the workings of the Criminal Term of the New York State Supreme Court and the New York City Criminal Court with the goal of improving the administration of justice for all New Yorkers. Committee members also actively participate in the City Bar Judiciary Committee’s review of judicial candidates.

We respectfully request that the new mayoral administration consider the following recommendations:

I. EMERGENCY MEDICALLY SUPERVISED WITHDRAWAL FOR PERSONS AT ARRAIGNMENT

It is not uncommon for defendants to appear at arraignment exhibiting clear indicia of drug or alcohol addiction. Correctional Health Services reports that 24% of persons committed to the City’s jail population suffer from opioid disorder and 28% from alcohol disorder.^[1] The New York City Criminal Court offers drug and alcohol treatment to interested persons through felony and misdemeanor diversion courts in each borough. These treatment courts are staffed with professional case managers who can assess a defendant’s addiction, refer them to an appropriate treatment program, and support them during treatment. However, there is typically a delay of at least several days before treatment court staff can meet with and assess an interested defendant and prepare a treatment plan for the diversion court. As a result, the arraignment judge is often faced with the choice of either imposing bail and sending the individual to jail, with limited access to immediate medically supervised withdrawal care, or releasing them and scheduling an assessment with treatment court staff. This issue is particularly critical for persons addicted to opiates who may be at high risk for overdose. We recommend that emergency medically supervised withdrawal and stabilization sites be designated at hospitals or other drug treatment facilities that can accept willing defendants for immediate medically supervised withdrawal care and stabilization from the arraignment courtroom, preferably with a peer escort to ensure that they arrive at the facility.

II. CRIMINAL COURT – ARRAIGNMENT STUDY

Arraignment courtrooms in NYC criminal courts are some of the busiest courtrooms in the country, operating from 9am-1am, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. 1,231,004 people were arraigned in New York City courtrooms in 2024.^[2] A person’s appearance before the arraignment court is an early intercept point with the criminal justice system, which can be utilized for early identification and intervention for persons with substance use disorder, mental illness, or other needs underlying their interaction with law enforcement. Arraignment courtrooms are also the point where nearly all stakeholders come in contact for the first time and become involved in the case – including the New York City Police Department (NYPD), New York City Department of Correction (DOC), New York State Office of Court Administration (OCA), Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), prosecutors, defense counsel, program providers, and community members.

Committee members reported a range of concerns regarding the current operation of arraignment parts in New York City Criminal Courts. Tragically, we recognize that two persons died while in custody to be arraigned in 2025. While we appreciate that these matters are under investigation, they highlight challenges and deficiencies in arraignment operations that should be addressed by all parties involved.

We recommend that MOCJ organize a series of stakeholders’ meetings and courtroom visits to examine the state of criminal court arraignments, collect data, identify problems, and address systemic issues that arise at this integral stage of the criminal court process.  This process should address the root causes of the tragic deaths that occurred in NYPD custody in 2025 and thoroughly examine the conditions of the courtrooms in general.  It would also help identify and address other issues that have arisen in recent years, such as limited NYPD staffing which impedes expeditious production of defendants before the court and the practicalities of creating a program to provide cell phones to indigent released individuals when their cell phones are held for evidence. The goal is to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the arraignment courtroom while respecting the humanity of those brought before the court. Meetings should be held regularly to ensure ongoing monitoring of identified problems and to propose or implement solutions as well as identify new issues as they arise.

III. LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING AND COLLABORATION WITH MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has created specialized units, such as crisis intervention teams, which combine specially trained police officers with mental health professionals to respond to emergency situations involving emotionally disturbed persons. We encourage the continued development of this form of police response, which represents a positive step toward de-escalating challenging situations while avoiding unnecessary exercise of police force. Such integrated intervention teams have the benefit of connecting persons with mental health concerns with mental health professionals at the early intercept point of police action, which may encourage diversion to treatment rather than arrest and prosecution. We also encourage the use of peer counselors in this process. Similarly, we support the continuation of the current Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (“B-HEARD”) program, a public health-led response team for 911 mental health calls. This initiative, managed by NYC Health + Hospitals, includes deploying New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) to respond to nonviolent incidents. Such programs encourage measured responses to appropriate emergency situations that direct mentally ill persons toward treatment options and away from arrest and prosecution.

IV. NYPD DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OFFICER PROGRAM

The NYPD’s Domestic Violence Officers (“DVO”) investigate incidents involving intimate partner and family violence and maintain continuing contact with complaining witnesses through direct home visits and referrals. Since the October 2025 announcement of the Domestic Violence Unit, members of the unit are already being offered additional training to better respond to alleged incidents of domestic violence, better understand the dynamics of intimate partner violence, and assist with evidence collection following an initial arrest. By assigning specially trained officers to handle each domestic violence case, survivors of domestic violence will no longer be retraumatized by repeating interviews with various officers during investigations. Such trauma informed policing should result in a better understanding of each complainant’s circumstance and yield more effective case reviews by prosecutors and ultimately more effective use of judicial resources. We commend this initiative and urge the Mamdani Administration to continue the program. In addition, NYPD responds to many reports of family incidents that are non-criminal, and the committee recommends an exploration as to whether social workers or other professionals, in conjunction with the NYPD, can respond to these situations.

V. IMPROVED FLOW OF DISCOVERY INFORMATION TO PROSECUTORS

Since major reforms to New York State discovery laws in 2020, prosecutors have been tasked with obtaining a substantial amount of NYPD information and records. Their primary point of contact with the NYPD is typically the arresting officer, who must respond to numerous assistant district attorneys while also performing his or her own patrol duties. We commend the ongoing efforts of the citywide discovery work group to integrate the separate data systems maintained by NYPD, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), and other city agencies connected to law enforcement matters and ask Mayor Mamdani to support efforts to facilitate the flow of information from law enforcement agencies to the district attorneys’ offices and ultimately to defense counsel in each case.

To the extent practicable, we ask that a more direct and automatic system be created so that individual prosecutors may share required information and documents with defense counsel expeditiously and without court intervention. One proposed way to do this would be to tag all forms entered into the Domain Awareness System, so they may automatically link to an arrest number and update when they are finalized or approved by NYPD supervisors. We recommend that when the city funds any information management system related to the criminal justice system, including NYPD and OCME, those agencies must be required to include an API (Application Programming Interface).  This will allow their data management programs to efficiently communicate with other criminal justice agencies, such as OCA, district attorneys’ offices, and public defenders.

VI. HOUSING AND RE-ENTRY

We recognize that the mayor’s administration has expressed a commitment to expanding affordable housing in our city. We ask that special effort be made to make housing available to persons released from incarceration or displaced from their residence by orders of protection. We also advocate for the creation of supportive housing for persons engaged in drug treatment and mental health recovery judicial diversion programs. Supportive housing, which offers peer support and social worker supervision, is critical to enable persons in recovery or dealing with the challenges of mental illness to create stable and productive lives.

VII. UNIFORM COURT RECORDS

Currently, official court records for criminal cases are maintained partially in paper files and partly in a database maintained by the New York State Office of Court Administration. As a result, complete case records are not readily available to the assigned prosecutors and defense counsel of record since they lack direct access to documents electronically filed with the court. We encourage the use of complete digital court records, which may be accessed only by counsel to the action. We ask that MOCJ consult with OCA in this matter.

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We thank Mayor Mamdani and the new mayoral administration for considering these important matters. We welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues in more depth and look forward to working with your administration to support and improve New York City’s criminal courts as well as the health, safety and rehabilitation of justice-involved individuals, their families and communities, and the wider public.

Criminal Courts Committee
Eric S. Fieldman, Co-Chair
Jeffrey D. Linehan, Co-Chair