NORWICH – A years-long effort to overhaul the arraignment process for individuals picked up by police in Chenango County was advanced on Monday with the county Board of Supervisors’ endorsement of a suggested arraignment plan.

The new plan proposes a central arraignment office inside the lobby of the Chenango County jail to serve as a courtroom for arraignments by local town and village justices on a rotating basis, and to be staffed by the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office.

Chenango County is one of the few counties in New York’s Sixth Judicial Court District without a centralized arraignment program (CAP) which sets specific times, often in 12-hour intervals, for arraignments. Advocates of a local CAP program say it would create a more organized, more predictable arraignment process throughout the county.

As it works now, a typical arraignment in Chenango County starts with a court’s phone call to the public defender’s office and the criminal court judge in the jurisdiction where the crime was committed. If that judge is unavailable, the arresting agency will contact another judge to conduct the arraignment. An attorney is sent to the court handling the arraignment, wherever it may be in the county, during whatever time the call is made. In some cases, this may mean an attorney — or a judge, for that matter — isn’t available until hours later.

The big issue, according to Chenango County Sheriff Ernest Cutting, is that arresting officers must stay with the individuals they confine until arraignment. If a judge or attorney isn’t immediately available, then the process takes longer, consequently keeping the officer from patrol duties while they wait at the local court. A CAP program would solve this issue because arrested individuals would instead wait for arraignment in the lobby of the correctional facility, supervised by other officers, and the arresting officer can return to patrol.

Cutting has repeatedly voiced concerns about the current process in front of the county’s Safety and Rules Committee, saying that it creates issues with staffing, liability, and the transport of those in custody for arraignment. The sheriff’s office simply doesn’t have the manpower to always handle it, he said.

Chenango County has 26 local criminal courts (one city court, four village courts, and 20 town courts) which are presided over by 31 local criminal court judges. These courts are spread throughout the county’s 900 square miles.

Advocates of a CAP overhaul say that having the new plan in place will help to streamline the arraignment process among all stakeholders.

The resolution of endorsement passed by the county Board of Supervisors notes that state funding is available for initial set up costs — a point of concern among county heads when the CAP idea was introduced — and the state will directly incur personnel service-related expenses for presiding judge and justices.

The plan has received backing from multiple law enforcement agencies county-wide, including seven police departments, the county sheriff, and the New York State Police.

Sheriff Cutting said at a June meeting of the county’s Safety and Rules Committee that while the new CAP plan looks good, he believes there are still kinks to work out to ease liability on his department before giving it his nod of approval.

If all stakeholders submitted a letter of support, the new CAP plan could be submitted to Albany. All have done so except the sheriff. Even with the county’s endorsement on Monday, the plan won’t move forward without a letter from Sheriff Cutting.