Implementation of the Time Frames Legislated in the Speedy Trial Act of 1974

The Speedy Trial Act represents an effort by Congress to address the problems of delays in the handling of Federal criminal cases. The act established uniform time frames that generally must be followed by Federal district courts in processing criminal cases. Congress recognized that problems might develop with statutory time frames and therefore gave the criminal justice system over 4 years to prepare for full implementation of the Speedy Trial Act. The lack of sufficient data on implementation problems undercuts the ability of the judicial system to systematically evaluate the impact of the Speedy Trial Act. As a result, neither the courts nor Congress has sufficient evidence for deciding legislative or procedural changes necessary to allow full compliance and minimize potential adverse trade-offs. Information available deals basically with anticipated problems rather than information obtained from systematic evaluations of actual experience during the act's phase-in period. Neither Congress nor the components of the criminal justice system want to achieve a speedy trial if it results in an ineffective criminal justice system. Logically, increasing the act's time frames by 80 percent would lessen the adverse trade-offs identified to date. However, Congress still needs answers to questions on the time frames and the judicial system components need to do more to provide these answers.