Pretrial Decisions - A Contextual Analysis of Central Intake Systems - Executive Summary

The CI system was created out of a need to coordinate key criminal justice agency functions in order to facilitate efficient and effective intake and release through centralized administration. Six sites were selected to participate in the CI project as intake release decision systems: Arapahoe County, Colo.; Delaware State; Jackson County, Mo.; Pima County, Ariz.; Salt Lake County, Utah; and San Mateo County, Calif. Findings indicate that when central intake is defined as a centralized administration, community defendant, and system needs were viewed as being met. All six sites followed similar development sequences for their CI projects. CI projects differed widely in terms of their data collection and evaluation efforts, the degree of record computerization, means of calculating cost effectiveness, definition of key terms, and availability of baseline data for measuring program changes. Tables, about 65 references, a list of CI recommendations, and the table of contents to a CI workbook are included.