To: The Honorable Michael J. Rodriques, Chair, Senate Committee on Ways and Means
The Honorable Aaron Michlewitz, Chair, House Committee on Ways and Means
The Honorable Michael D. Hurley, Clerk of the Senate
The Honorable Steven T. James, Clerk of the House
From: Jennifer Franco, Counsel, Massachusetts District Attorneys Association
Date: January 17, 2020
Re: Amended Annual Report on the District Attorneys’ Prosecution Statistics
As required by Chapter 41 of the Acts of 2019, 1 the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association
submits to the Ways & Means Committees data from the District Attorneys relative to their criminal
prosecutions and workloads for calendar year 2019. This report amends the previous report filed and
dated January 10, 2020 to include data from all eleven districts.
While the reports of the individual districts delineating their workloads by charge or
category of work are attached, below please find a synopsis of the calendar year 2019 totals per
listed category 2 pertaining to the eleven districts that have reported data to MDAA:
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0340-2100 [MDAA] shall work in conjunction with the 11 district attorneys’ offices to prepare and submit a report
to the house and senate committees on ways and means and the clerks of the house of representatives and the
senate no later than January 15, 2020, provided further, that the association shall provide the 11 district attorneys’
offices with an agreed upon template for the report to be filled out; provided further that, that the district
attorneys’ offices shall submit the report in a standard electronic format; provided further, that the template shall
include, delineated by charge type: (a) the number of criminal cases initiated by arraignment in each department
of the trial court; (b) the number of criminal cases disposed of in each department of the trial court; (c) the
number of cases appealed to the appeals court or supreme judicial court or any other appeals; and (d) the number
of cases reviewed but not charged; and (e) the number of cases under active management where the case includes
charges for drug offenses under chapter 94C or the General Laws, motor vehicle charges under chapter 90 of the
General Laws or firearm offenses under chapter 140 of the General Laws.
2
Data lists total charges with the exception of “Appellate Work,” “Cases Reviewed/Not Charged,” and “Other
Work,” all of which measure cases, investigations or a specific event.
 Superior Court/Youthful Offender:
Arraigned: 655
Disposed: 510
Actively Managed 3: 1018+
Juvenile Court:
Arraigned: 11,495
Disposed: 12,258
Actively Managed: 18,152+
Diversion: 3,684
Superior Court (Adult):
Arraigned: 18,354
Disposed: 18,067
Actively Managed: 42,613+
District Court (Adult):
Arraigned: 345,658
Disposed: 345,231
Actively Managed: 438,344+
Appellate Work: 3,485
Cases Reviewed/Not Charged: 36,106
Other Work: 52,284
As also required by the reporting language of line item 0340-2100, please find specific
charges below, broken down by court:
3
This report does not contain “actively managed” cases from Suffolk County. Suffolk County did not provide
MDAA with any data relative to actively managed cases.
2
Superior Court/Youthful Offender:
Motor Vehicle (pursuant to MGL Chapter 90):
Arraigned: 16
Disposed: 9
Actively Managed: 24+
Controlled Substances (pursuant to MGL Chapter 94C):
Arraigned: 23
Disposed: 10
Actively Managed: 25+
Firearms (pursuant to MGL Chapter 140):
Arraigned: 170
Disposed: 149
Actively Managed: 238+
Juvenile Court:
Motor Vehicle (pursuant to MGL Chapter 90):
Arraigned: 1020
Disposed: 1013
Actively Managed: 1,462+
Diversion: 326
Controlled Substances (pursuant to MGL Chapter 94C):
Arraigned: 321
Disposed: 378
Actively Managed: 501+
Diversion: 338
Firearms (pursuant to MGL Chapter 140):
Arraigned: 528
Disposed: 509
Actively Managed: 742+
Diversion: 29
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 Superior Court (Adult):
Motor Vehicle (pursuant to MGL Chapter 90):
Arraigned: 455
Disposed: 408
Actively Managed: 1023+
Controlled Substances (pursuant to MGL Chapter 94C):
Arraigned: 3,069
Disposed: 3,182
Actively Managed: 7,440+
Firearms (pursuant to MGL Chapter 140):
Arraigned: 2,896
Disposed: 2,860
Actively Managed: 6,161+
District Court (Adult):
Motor Vehicle (pursuant to MGL Chapter 90):
Arraigned: 145,161
Disposed: 141,086
Actively Managed: 170,757+
Controlled Substances (pursuant to MGL Chapter 94C):
Arraigned: 30,904
Disposed: 30,605
Actively Managed: 43,045+
Firearms (pursuant to MGL Chapter 140):
Arraigned: 8,027
Disposed: 8,472
Actively Managed: 12,047+
Attached to this memo are the individual submissions from the eleven District Attorneys’
Offices. The District Attorneys utilize the same case management system (DAMION) but differ
significantly in how each office defines its data and inputs and reports that data, as well as whether
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certain data is even tracked at all. Please also note that, due to budget constraints, and resulting
administrative staffing shortages, not all offices are able to input all cases (especially those in the
district courts) into DAMION, resulting in underreporting of cases; and not all offices are able to
quickly close disposed cases, resulting in over reporting.
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