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Saturday, October 02, 2010

Ind. Courts - South Bend Tribune review finds errors in Indiana court statistics

Amazing, and lengthy, story today from Alicia Gallegos of the SB Tribune. Some quotes - the story should be read in full:

For decades, the Indiana Supreme Court has compiled data from each county in order to provide a clear snapshot of caseloads moving through the court system.

For most counties, these reports are the only easily accessibly data available to the public on the type of criminal and civil cases being handled by the courts and how those cases are being decided. These figures, say state officials, are used for policy decisions, judicial staffing, and proposing new fees and penalties, among other uses.

But a Tribune analysis of these state statistics over the course of several weeks found significant errors in the supreme court’s data for St. Joseph County, including:

  • years of missing numbers in certain case categories

  • specific case filings thousands of numbers different from filings cited by the prosecutor's office

  • exorbitant case data in some categories.
* * * [Lillia Judson, executive director of the Indiana Supreme Court Division of State Court Administration] said a lack of uniformity in how each Indiana county compiles its own court data contributes to some inaccuracies.

"The numbers are only as good as the systems that provide them," Judson said. "It goes back to the basic systems that are in place." * * *

Individual courts in St. Joseph County record their own statistics — primarily forms filled out by hand — then give them to the county court administrator, who compiles all the numbers and sends them to the state.

Every year, the Supreme Court then generates and eventually publishes the county and state totals.

But the Tribune review of the state reports found the numbers paint a misleading picture of how some cases are handled by the court and prosecutor's office, and they make it nearly impossible to rely on trends for other decided cases.

For example, in 2008 — the most recent Supreme Court report published — numbers show St. Joseph County had a 56 percent dismissal rate for criminal misdemeanors.

These data were presented to the prosecutor's office, where Prosecutor Michael Dvorak and his office staff said the rate “couldn't be right.”

Additional local reports obtained and analyzed by The Tribune show a misdemeanor dismissal rate of 53.9 percent for 2009.

“I think you or someone has hit on it,” Scopelitis said when dismissal numbers were pointed out. “That’s too high.”

What is missing from most of the records are numbers of “deferred” misdemeanors, infractions and ordinance violations. According to the Supreme Court website, this category refers to when prosecutors and defendants agree to defer prosecution or for the defendant to enter a diversion program. The category, says the site, is a way for the state to track the number of defendants consenting to the programs.

Officials from the prosecutor's office say they defer dozens of cases each year, including close to 50 cases a year that are referred to drug court.

Dating back to 2006, these deferred cases were not recorded in the Supreme Court stats.

Judson said missing numbers in some categories would not raise red flags with the state because each county handles cases differently and may or may not have diversion programs.

“The (Supreme) Court staff has no way of knowing this,” she said. “We do not have auditors out in the field. … The level of responsibility requires every court to report and requires us to collect.” * * *

Also in question is the correct number of misdemeanors recorded as being filed each year.

In 2008, the Supreme Court report cites that 8,946 criminal misdemeanors were filed in St. Joseph County, while the prosecutor's office says only 5,979 were actually filed, a difference of nearly 3,000.

Pat Higgins, chief of staff of the prosecutor’s office, called the state stats “grossly inflated” and suggested the problem could be that traffic and misdemeanor cases are being counted by the courts when arrests are made and cause numbers assigned, but before charges are officially filed.

Judson said she does not know the reason for the large discrepancy but stressed that the state has clear classification of offenses. Cases are only to be defined as a misdemeanor, she said, “when a charge is filed by the prosecutor.”

Also missing from the St. Joseph County report are numbers of violation bureau cases for 2008. Local court officials say they had numbers for that year and would have sent them to the state, but the numbers are absent from the state’s online publication.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 2, 2010 09:52 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts