Denver County court officials have discovered that giving miscreants a reminder of their pending court date goes a long way.
A pilot program in which offenders were called three days before their arraignment cut the number of no-shows in one court in half, court officials told the City Council Public Safety Committee on Wednesday.
“We even have one judge saying, ‘Stop, stop, we have too many people coming to court,”‘ joked Matthew McConville, the county’s court administrator.
Comprehensive statistics on the program weren’t available Wednesday. But in one courtroom where the calls were made, the number of failures to appear decreased from 1,059 in 2004 to 530 in 2005, he said.
This year, the county plans to expand the program to trials and additional court appearances, said Chief County Judge Andrew Armatas.
Armatas said the program could help free jail space since a failure-to-appear charge could result in a warrant for arrest.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
