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Tompkins County DA seeks grant-funded victim advocate, digital evidence contract and parity for arraignment stipends
Summary
District Attorney Matt Van Houten presented a personnel-heavy operating budget emphasizing alternatives-to-incarceration work, requested a grant-funded victim advocate with county fringe support, and outlined a needed Axon digital-evidence contract and stipend parity for attorneys handling centralized arraignments.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matt Van Houten told the Expanded Budget Committee on Sept. 11 that his office needs a grant-funded victim advocate, a digital-evidence-management contract and parity in stipends for attorneys who attend centralized arraignment caps. Van Houten said the DA’s office emphasizes alternatives to incarceration, trauma-informed approaches and vigorous prosecution of violent felonies. He said those alternatives require more attorney time for treatment-team follow-up and victim communication than a purely transactional prosecution model. Van Houten described staffing at roughly 16 employees: nine prosecutors, four administrative staff, three part-time investigators (working 30, 27 and 24 hours per week), and…
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