Roundtree And York

Courts reverse cuts in arraignment hours, citing delays

NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) - Barely one month after steep budget cuts forced New York courts to slash their weekend arraignment hours, court administrators are reversing most of those cutbacks in Brooklyn, citing an unacceptable increase in the waiting time to see a judge.

Data provided by the court system's central office show that hundreds of defendants are waiting longer than 24 hours following their arrest to be arraigned, violating a 20-year-old legal mandate.

The backlog grew large enough that the Legal Aid Society threatened to file motions on behalf of the defendants to compel the court system to address the problem, according to its spokeswoman, Pat Bath.

But the Office of Court Administration headed off the litigation by agreeing to add weekend arraignment hours in Brooklyn, where the problems are most dire, said OCA spokesman David Bookstaver. The increase will start this Saturday.

"We'll continue to monitor this closely to make sure our adjustments make a significant change in the arrest-to-arraignment time," Bookstaver said.

The budget cuts were part of $170 million in reductions to the court system ordered by the state legislature. Bookstaver would not address how the reversal would affect the court system's budget.

In anticipation of the cuts, the OCA had added extra arraignment hours on Friday in an effort to clear the decks before the weekend, but that proved inadequate to solve the problems in Brooklyn.

In that borough, the percentage of defendants awaiting arraignment who were held for longer than 24 hours has exceeded 40 percent almost every Sunday since June 11, when weekend court hours were sliced in half, according to statistics from the OCA. In the five weeks prior to that, the percentage never reached 40 percent.

JULY 4TH BOTTLENECK

Delays in Manhattan have also increased, with the percentage of defendants held longer than 24 hours hovering between 33 and 48 percent on Sundays since June 11.

On July 10 in Brooklyn, for instance, there was an average of 148 defendants at any given time who had waited more than 24 hours to see a judge. The same day, an average of 141 defendants in Manhattan had waited more than a full day.

The bottleneck peaked over the busy July 4 weekend, when more than half of all defendants awaiting arraignment in Manhattan and Brooklyn on Monday, July 4, had been held for more than 24 hours.

The crisis comes as little surprise to court administrators, who had warned that the reduction in hours would cause delays throughout the city.

In Search of Old Fashioned Roundtree & Yorke Tank Top | Undershirt ...

Hi Tug-

I am an old fashioned guy (76 years) and am looking for an old fashioned undershirt. Several years ago, I bought eight of the perfect undershirt at Dillard’s department store. The brand was Roundtree and Yorke. But, they are wearing out now and I have not been able to find them again. Not at Dillard’s store or website or even with a lot of Google searching. Can you help me find an equivalent?

Here is what I need. The undershirt is sleeveless (but not a “muscle shirt”) and looks like the usual ribbed undershirt. But, this material was NOT ribbed. Also, there is no seam down either side. The 100 percent cotton material was soft, like a Jockey sleeved tee undershirt. The material was very heavy compared to a typical ribbed undershirt.

I found and order three Anvil undershirts that were advertised as 100 percent cotton with a weight of 6.1 oz. The undershirt were of the proper shape and did not have a seam down the side. But, the cotton was very rough and agressive feeling, not smooth like the Roundtree and Yorke shirts (or the Jockey tee shirt). Also, the material might have been a little heavier than standard, but it was not what I would have considered to be “Heavy”.

I don’t want tight fitting, moisture wicking, self cleaning or whatever. Just an old fashioned soft and heavy cotton undershirt with seams down the side.

Any help would be appreciated.

i did a quick scan of the recommended products, and found some of them might meet most of your criteria, but not all. also, i recalled a couple other options that might be suitable as well. below you will find a series of suggestions to take a look at. the main thing i couldn’t find are tanks with no side seams (“seamless” or “tubular” body):