Prosecutors' offices must have the capacity to effectively and efficiently fulfill their ethical obligations. Performance indicators centered on the goals of Capacity and Efficiency assess whether the DA's Office has the staffing/resources it needs, prioritizes cases in a way to make efficient and effective use of those resources, and resolves cases in a timely manner.
What kinds of questions can we ask? We can think about this as answering a few questions: Is the Office staffed the way we want it staffed? Are we making intelligent charging decisions? Are we making decisions efficiently within appropriate timelines and by prioritizing the right cases?
High volumes of minor felony and misdemeanor filings can overwhelm prosecutor’s offices and take away time and resources from more serious cases that pose greater public safety risks.
The chart below shows the percent of cases filed with a felony as the top charge.
Incarceration should be reserved for serious offenders. A lower percentage of incarceration sentences for serious offenders indicates an overreliance on incarceration for non-serious offenders.
The chart below shows the percent of incarceration sentences involving a person, sex, or weapons charge.
Lengthy court cases cause additional hardship for defendants and victims, require unnecessary expenditures, and add to backlogs in the court system.
The charts below show the median number of days from filing to disposition for felony and misdemeanor cases.