Tompkins County DA seeks grant-funded victim advocate, digital evidence contract and parity for arraignment stipends

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 a data analyst. He asked the committee to accept a 0.9 FTE victim-advocate position funded by a New York State Office of Victim Services grant that would provide $72,000 annually for three years to cover salary; the county would need to fund about $40,223 in fringe benefits to house the position locally. On evidence management, he said the statewide prosecutors training system that the office used for discovery has limits and that vendor Axon (body-worn-camera provider) now requires a paid integration for digital evidence. Van Houten requested a Premier Digital Evidence Management contract with Axon priced at about $33,000 per year on a five-year term; he said the county could see cost savings compared with a la carte alternatives and that Axon would provide expanded functionality (transcripts, translation and broader video import) and unlimited storage. Van Houten also described the office’s participation in centralized arraignment caps at the Public Safety Building. He told the committee the office has tracked data showing prosecutors’ presence at caps has saved an estimated 172 jail days to date; using a county cost-per-detainee figure of $253 per day, he said that equates to roughly $43,516 in avoided incarceration costs so far. His 2026 ask includes funding to pay DA attorneys the same $350 appearance stipend that assigned counsel receive for attending cap arraignments; he included a $29,000 line in the budget to close that parity gap. Van Houten said many of the DA office’s additional discovery and digital costs are reimbursable through state aid grants (discovery grant and aid to prosecution) and that the office has documented discovery-related expenses including one full-time paralegal, a third investigator and Sheriff’s Office costs totaling roughly $248,000 that are or can be claimed under grant programs. Ending: The DA’s presentation emphasized personnel and digital-evidence needs tied to court and discovery changes since 2020, sought grant support for a victim advocate while asking the county to cover fringe costs, and requested stipend parity for attorneys covering centralized arraignment caps to recognize work that the office says reduces jail days and produces community benefits.