New Jail

The need to spend millions to build a new county jail can't be given accurate analysis because the policies of the current District Attorney do not promote efficient use of our present facility. A report by the National Institute of Corrections analyzed our jail situation and documented severe systemic issues directly related to the prosecutor's office as a primary cause for our jail overcrowding.

Next to the court, the prosecutor probably has one of the greatest influences on the whole system. Only the prosecutor decides whether to file a case or not. If the prosecutor has a very good case screening and case management processes then it will positively affect the jail at no risk to public safety. If the prosecutor has explicit filing standards that require a higher standard of evidence then there will be fewer cases that are dismissed after being filed. If the filing standards are understood by the various law enforcement agencies then there will be less defendants arrested only to have their charges not filed or dismissed. If the prosecutor allows for early discovery and has a well-established negotiation policy then the same results can be obtained in less time at no loss to public safety and in saving public safety dollars. It is also clear that court caseflow is a weak area for Cortland County justice system and that it should receive a primary focus in the immediate future and the prosecutor's office is a primary key to unlocking caseflow"

This report was submitted in March 2004. In May 2006 the Cortland County Sheriff's Advisory Committee submitted a report, analyzing the need for a new jail, stating "
The current DA has been in office for approximately 2-1/2 years, although he has been with the D.A. office for more than twenty years. The D.A. indicated that while he has not implemented any new policies regarding plea bargaining practice, he has taken a more focused view on case reviews within the office that may result in more trials than in the past. He was not in total agreement with the new electronic monitoring program that has been developed for the pretrial population. He did acknowledge that the program has been somewhat successful in the short period since its inception."

Thus, the second report indicates that the current DA has ignored the findings of a respected national body, in terms of communicating more openly with defense attorneys in the negotiating process, and communicating more effectively with police in the arrest process - simple steps to accelerate case resolution that would keep our jail populations at manageable levels and, incidentally, would also reduce the costs of assigned lawyers for indigent defendants and paid for by taxpayers.
 
The current DA frequently agrees to sentencing plea bargains involving local jail, even on cases arrested as felonies. The Advisory Committee report criticizes the DA's sentencing practices as a primary course of jail congestion: "
Local jail sentencing practices has remained somewhat of a stagnant protocol", and "
a major reason the jail population has approximately 50% of its average daily population…as local sentenced". These practices are nearly always the result of the sentencing recommendations of the current DA.

Bottom line: Let's fix the way the DA's office shepherds cases through the system, which currently bogs down the entire system, before we spend millions of our tax dollars building a new facility that we may not need.
 
MARK SUBEN WOULD communicate early and professionally with defense attorneys, and provide them with information about cases that they need to understand and convey to their clients, which would have the immediate effect of flushing out the jail in times of overcrowding. He would evaluate cases immediately, and resolve them promptly either by indictment or plea that serves the interests of justice and the community.

Mark would also communicate consistently with police personnel who make arrests and investigate cases.

The key to everything that's currently wrong with the system is better communication - by the District Attorney - to everyone:

* to the public when appropriate
* to defense attorneys
* to judges
* to police and other witnesses.

That's what was clearly recommended by the national organization that studied our criminal justice system in 2004, and that was identified as the bottleneck by that national organization. Failure of the District Attorney to effectively communicate. That is what our current District Attorney has adamantly, often infuriatingly, refused to do. Communicate. That is what Mark Suben will do. Communicate.

It is what, above everything else, Mark Suben stands for. Communication. Effective, professional, courteous communication. Because he knows it works. Because he knows it's right.