KINGSTON – Centralized arraignment of suspects during overnight hours is under consideration by the Ulster County Criminal Justice Reform Task Force.
That would create a schedule for judges to know when they would be on call for arraignment, said Eve Walter, chairwoman of the county legislature’s Law Enforcement and Public Safety Committee.
“What other counties have done, namely Broome, is they create a centralized place, which they are proposing to use the jail, which is what they have been using for virtual courts during COVID, and that the judges would work on a cycle,” she said. “So, rather than any particular night being woken up at 2, you would know your schedule and you would be available on just those days.”
Currently, if a suspect needs to be arraigned overnight and a local judge is unavailable, a judge from another jurisdiction would be called in.
