City of Mobile Emerges as National Leader in Municipal Court Reform

Jul 28th, 2016

Punishing Crime, Not Penalizing Poverty

Mayoral Action:
In 2014, Mayor Stimpson appointed Nathan Emmorey to be the Court Administrator to oversee the operations of the court. Municipal Court has been without an administrator for 5 years and important changes had fallen to the wayside to simply keep the courts running, inefficiently at best. Under Emmorey's leadership, the court has sought to transform citizens' experience with a justice system that is efficient, effective and punishes crime, not penalizing poverty.

Magistrates move to 200 Government:

• Prior to this administration, the Municipal Magistrate office spent more than a decade in a trailer south of the Metro Jail.
  
• In 2015, the Magistrate office moved to 200 Government Street, a restored four-story brownstone in the heart of Downtown Mobile.
  

Minor Misdemeanors:

• Previously, individuals arrested and charged with petty misdemeanors, such as disorderly conduct, were (worst-case) spending over 30 days in Jail waiting for a trial date because they could not afford to bond out.
  
• Others were being forced to make the difficult choice between jail time and bonds for minor offenses
  
• Now, as long as an individual chooses to appear on their court date, individuals will not be held in jail for minor misdemeanors.
  

Rocket Docket:

• The Court now holds hearings at the jail seven days a week using a combination of a judge and magistrates to address violations accordingly and in a timely manner.
  
• This system allows for greater protection of victims and the public, while allowing non-violent offenders to appear before the court and to be released on bond without having to spend a day in jail for being arrested.
  

Time-to-pay System:

• Many individuals convicted of offenses cannot afford to immediately pay their court costs and fines.
  
• To remedy this problem, a new time-to-pay system was put into operation.
  
• If defendants submit all of the monthly payments they agreed to make, they will never have to come to court again.
  

First Floor Municipal Pay Windows:

• The Municipal Payment window's location on the second floor of the courthouse was creating long lines and unnecessary foot traffic.
  
• In 2015, the City acquired a space to design and build payment windows on the ground floor of Government Plaza.
  
• The new payment windows opened in January 2016 reducing the wait time for all court visitors.
  

Information Windows:

• Previously, individuals who needed information about Municipal Court stood in line at the second floor payment windows along with the people waiting to pay costs and fines leading to long lines and extended waiting times.
  
• When the payment windows were closed and move downstairs, the second floor windows were repurposed to act as information windows.
  

Court Scheduling:

• Previously, citizens would wait up to three months after arraignment for a trial date.
  
• Now, cases are set for arraignment between 14 to 21 days after arrest and trials are set for 30 to 35 day after arraignment to ensure a speedy trial.
  

Jail Work Program:

• The Municipal Court partnered with Metro Jail to create the Jail Work Program to allow people to serve their time working 8-hour days for the jail.
  
• This program eliminates housing costs, offers people real world experience and doesn't break the traditional family structure.
  

Tyler Software Implementation:

• Previously, the Court was using three, antiquated software programs that could not communicate with each other.
  
• In October 2015, the Court migrated to the Tyler software system that can house all court files in the cloud.
  
• The new software implementation allowed the court to make substantial changes to its business practices.