System Performance

System Performance Subcommittee

The purpose of the System Performance Subcommittee is to analyze the functioning of the criminal justice system at the seven major decision points and make recommendations to the Committee about system-wide policy, programmatic and operational improvements. The Subcommittee?s goals from 2007-2009 are:

1. Submit at least four action items to the CJSPC each year.
2. Review and modify, if necessary, booking and arrest standards.
3. Review and modify, if necessary, pretrial release/bonding practices.
4. Reduce the daily number of inmates who are convicted, but not yet sentenced.
5. Decide if the right people are being sentenced to the right sentencing options (e.g., jail, probation, diversion, community corrections) and make necessary recommendations.
6. Expand, if possible, the Inmate/Outmate program if expansion is supported by outcome evaluation results.

All of the above goals will help make county, municipal and state expenditures sustainable into the future, and help reduce the work overload experienced by agencies in the local criminal justice system.

Policy decisions for the seven major justice system decision points would be:

1. Whom do we arrest and why?
2. Whom do we book into the jail and why?
3. Whom do we release pretrial and why? 
4. Whom do we charge and why? 
5. Whom do we adjudicate and why? 
6. Whom do we sentence and why?
7. For whom do we modify a sentence and why?

Cheryl Lammers, Chief Probation Officer, First Judicial District, and Patsy Mundell, Division Chief of Detentions, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, are co-chairs. Meetings are monthly. This subcommittee was formed in the fall of 2004.  Please contact Mike Jones for more information.

Current Projects

Jefferson County Criminal Justice Planning is working with the First Judicial District Court Administrator and Clerk of the Court to develop a procedure by which a defendant's motor vehicle records are obtained electronically from the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles. Currently, these records are obtained through the mail in a slow and a cumbersome process. Once electronic retrieval is possible, much court clerk time and paperwork will be saved. In addition, the length of time for the setting of first appearances for summonsed traffic court defendants can be reduced from approximately 56 to 30 days. Please contact Mike Jones for more information on this initiative.

Reducing the Time Between the Issuing of Traffic Citations and Appearances in Court

Jefferson County Criminal Justice Planning is working with the First Judicial District Court Administrator and Clerk of the Court to reduce the length of time for the setting of first appearances for summonsed traffic court defendants from approximately 56 to 30 days. Intended outcomes of this project include a more immediate system response to traffic violations and fewer failures to appear. Please contact Mike Jones or Tim Schnacke for more information.

Electronic Citations for Patrol Officers

Jefferson County Criminal Justice Planning facilitates and provides staff support to the "Ticket Task Force," a group representing multiple local ticketing agencies and courts, prosecutors and defense attorneys, judges and court clerks, the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles, the State Court Administrator's Office and the Colorado State Patrol.  The Ticket Task Force is currently examining the feasibility of an electronic citation system for Jefferson County that would allow multiple ticketing agencies, using a variety of software/hardware options, to download tickets electronically to a central hub connected to the Department of Motor Vehicles and to the courts.  The Task Force is planning a multi-agency pilot project in Jefferson County, which, if successful, will expedite statewide implementation of electronic citation writing and data collection. Please contact Tim Schnacke or Mike Jones for more information on this initiative.

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Recently Completed Projects

Reducing Failures to Appear (FTAs)

The Jefferson County FTA Call Pilot Project was developed as a result of discussions by the System Performance Subcommittee, and was made possible by the coordinated efforts of subcommittee members.  Criminal Justice Planning (CJP) completed oversight of the pilot project, which occurred during the spring of 2005.  The project was designed to study the effectiveness of telephone notification in reducing the number of defendants who fail to appear for their court dates for certain traffic and misdemeanor offenses in the Jefferson County Combined Court.  In the first phase of the study, a caller telephoned randomly selected defendants one week prior to their court dates to remind them of their promise to appear and to warn them of the consequences of their failure to appear.  In the second phase, the caller telephoned randomly selected defendants who had already failed to appear, notified them of their warrants and gave them five days to return to court.  Comparing these defendants with defendants who were not called, CJP found that telephone notification was successful in reducing the FTA rate almost in half.  For details about this particular pilot project, please refer to the FTA Pilot Project Summary.  Due to the success of the pilot project, as well as potential cost savings to law enforcement, the courts and detentions, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office created its Court Date Notification Program.  In 2006, CJP created a Six Month Program Summary, which showed a 52 percent reduction in the FTA rate for the targeted population.  For more information, contact Mike Jones or Tim Schnacke. 


Revision of Uniform Summons and Complaint or Penalty Assessment

Jefferson County Criminal Justice Planning facilitates and provides staff support to the "Ticket Task Force", a group representing multiple local ticketing agencies, county and municipal judges and court clerks, prosecutors and defense attorneys, the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles, the State Court Administrator's Office, and the Colorado State Patrol.  Through group consensus, the Task Force has redesigned the current, half-page Uniform Summons and Complaint to create a full-page ticket template (called the Jefferson County Model Summons) to reflect current agency needs and to conform to changes in the law.  The finished template may be used by any Colorado jurisdiction seeking a model template for county or municipal tickets.  Please contact Tim Schnacke or Mike Jones for additional information or to receive a copy of the Jefferson County Model Summons.

Last Modified: Feb 28, 2011 10:43 AM