The Nation - News from Aug. 4, 1986

About half the felony cases in a dozen largely urban areas were disposed of within 3 1/2 months, the Justice Department said, an indication that much of the judicial system is coping with court backlogs. It took slightly less than five months on the average to dispose of felonies resulting in indictment or that were bound over for trial, says the new study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Cases resulting in trials took slightly more than seven months to dispose of, about twice as long as those that ended in guilty pleas or dismissal. The report is based on more than 100,000 felony arrests made in 1981.