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State marshals unlock the doors shortly before 10 a.m. each Tuesday to this windowless courtroom in Waterbury, Conn. Defendants shuffle in and find a seat. Attorneys trickle in and huddle with their clients.
Every so often, a prosecutor or defense attorney enters or returns from the closed door at the front of the courtroom. That is where they discuss a plea deal or the next steps for one of the 20 cases scheduled to be heard on a day.
Those waiting grow restless as noon approaches – over 90 minutes past when court was scheduled to begin.
A defendant gripes about having to miss work again for court as it begins to look like taking the whole day off from a restaurant job. A mother worries whether court will be over in time to pick up her kids from school. A defense attorney visibly agitated, grumbles, "This is so disrespectful of our time."
This is Connecticut's criminal court system – where a CT Insider review of data shows how long those entangled in the system must wait for the courts to administer justice.
Critics say a lack of clear rules around timelines gives too much power to prosecutors over the way cases are handled and the speed they are resolved. The delays also further traumatize and frustrate many victims and can weaken the prosecution's case.
Defenders of the system say the courts handle serious allegations may be complex and require time to appropriately adjudicate.
Over the last five years, the wait for justice in Connecticut has grown considerably, with the average amount of time for felony cases to be resolved with a conviction taking 1 year and 5 months, nearly 50% longer than in 2019.
That’s significantly longer than the 365 days that nearly all felony cases should be resolved, say model standards from the Conference of State Court Administrators, Conference of Chief Justices, American Bar Association, and The National Association for Court Management.
For the most serious charges, victims’ families had to wait over three years, on average, for a conviction. For those ultimately acquitted, or otherwise not convicted, of the most serious charges, it took over four years.
Defendants and their attorneys say they repeatedly must show up to court and sit idly for hours before their case is called as part of a process that involves months – sometimes years – of waiting for prosecutors to turn over police reports, body camera footage and to know what other evidence will be used against them.
While the wheels of justice turn slowly, defendants and their attorneys say they feel pressured to take plea deals that often leave defendants with a criminal record and the looming possibility of going to prison if they violate the deal’s terms. Data suggest that hundreds each month are pleading guilty just to leave prison.
"The process is part of the punishment. It's designed to force you to take a plea. The system is extremely flawed. It's broken," said Ioannis Kaloidis, a defense attorney for 23 years in Waterbury and former president of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
Criminal justice experts who recently assessed the state Division of Criminal Justice found “significant delays” are caused by outdated technology; including video players, hardware, software, internet connections, and not using a universal database for police departments to electronically share arrest information and other evidence.
CT Insider spent over 20 hours observing court proceedings on six occasions. No dispositive motions were heard during those proceedings, prosecutors regularly told defendants different types of evidence is not available to share, and case after case was continued. Several cases had come before the courts over 30 times.
“There's a number of aspects in the way the court system operates that seems like they deprive people of their rights,” said Dan Barrett of the American Civil Liberties Union. “There's just all kinds of ways in which the procedure is extremely expensive and every actor in the system is incentivized to try to (plead) out even if they didn't do it. … The pace hugely benefits the prosecution.”
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