Recommendation within Charge Severity and Type Defendants charged with felonies at Criminal Court arraignment had stronger community ties than those charged with misdemeanor or lesser-severity offenses. The rate of recommendation was therefore lower among defendants charged with misdemeanor or lesser-severity offenses. This relationship is evident regardless of whether affidavit or amended charges (the most serious charge after arraignment) are considered (Exhibits 7 and 8). For example, about 22 percent of the defendants with felony charges compared to 21 percent of those in the misdemeanor (including violation and other-severity offense) category received the highest rating (Exhibits 7 and 8). The proportion of defendants who received favorable recommendations, (Recommended and Qualified Recommendations combined), was highest in the D- and C- felony category (about 58%), followed by the E- (about 56%) felony categories. It is also important to note that the same proportion of defendants in the misdemeanor category and in the felony categories combined (about 9%) were ineligible for a recommendation because of an outstanding bench warrant. The distribution of community-ties assessments and recommendations also varied by type of most severe charge (Exhibit 9). The strongest community-ties rating was received more often by defendants charged with Vehicle and Traffic Law (VTL) offenses (27.3% were “Recommended: Verified Community Ties”), and with weapon (27%), than by those in the harm-to-persons (25.5%), harm-to-persons-and-property (25.4%), drug (20.7%), property (19.5%), misconduct (16.8%), and other-crime (15.2%) categories. Similarly, the rate of “No Recommendation” ranged from 23.9 percent in the VTL category and 26.1 percent in the weapon category, to 41.6 percent in the misconduct category and 42.2 percent among defendants in interviewed cases charged with other offenses. Defendants in the VTL, harm-to-persons, weapon, and harm-to-persons-andproperty categories showed lower outstanding warrant rates than defendants in other charge-type categories.
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