Court Watch NYC Aims To Make DAs Keep Their Promises

NEW YORK, NY — Criminal-justice reformers are dispatching watchdogs to Manhattan and Brooklyn courtrooms to make sure top prosecutors keep their promises. A new initiative called Court Watch NYC, officially launched Tuesday, is stationing volunteers in arraignment courts six days a week to paint a clearer picture of how the justice system really functions.

The joint project of the advocacy group VOCAL-NY, the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund and 5 Boro Defenders aims to hold Manhattan and Brooklyn's district attorneys — Cyrus Vance Jr. and Eric Gonzalez — accountable for their pledges to go easy on low-level crimes and keep New Yorkers out of jail, said Alyssa Aguilera, VOCAL's co-executive director.

"We can actually make sure that the policies that are being announced in their press releases are actually getting implemented in the courtrooms," Aguilera said.

Court Watch has trained more than 150 volunteers to watch how prosecutors handle certain criminal charges, how much bail they request how high the judge sets bail, Aguilera said. Court-watchers will also note less procedural but still important aspects of arraignments, Aguilera said, such as whether the defendant understands English or has a family member in the courtroom.

Vance and Gonzalez, both Democrats elected to new terms in November, have positioned themselves as progressive prosecutors. They've agreed not to request cash bail in most misdemeanor cases and have each pledged leniency on certain charges such as turnstile-jumping and marijuana possession, which are disproportionately enforced against people of color.

Court Watch wants to see how thoroughly those policies are trickling down into arraignment courts, where defendants are formally read the charges against them. Arraignments are quick but crucial proceedings where New Yorkers face their misdeeds — and the prospect of being jailed on Rikers Island if they can't make bail, Aguilera said.

"I think it’s really important for people to see how that process happens because it’s being done in our name," she said.

Court Watch plans to host monthly training sessions on the "nuts and bolts of arraignment courts" for any interested volunteers, including one in March for which about 100 people have signed up, Aguilera said.

The group will report on each week's court happenings on its blog and will collect data that it will eventually mine for quarterly reports, Aguilera said.

Vance's office welcomes the watchdogs, a spokesman said.

"Open courts are one of the great hallmarks of our justice system and we welcome the engagement and public accountability that court observers provide," Danny Frost, the spokesman, said in a statement.

Of the five boroughs, Brooklyn sends the smallest percentage of defendants to Rikers before their trials, a spokeswoman for Gonzalez said.

"The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office is committed to making the criminal justice system in Brooklyn fairer and more equitable," the spokeswoman, Helen Peterson, said in a statement.

(Lead image: A New York State court officer watches a crowd inside the Brooklyn Criminal Court in February 2015. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)