The felony backlog is shrinking almost everywhere — except where it grew the most

Felony case backlogs have largely cleared. A review of state court administrative data from 46 states shows the national median time from arrest to trial has fallen to 291 days, down from a peak of 372 four years ago and within three weeks of where it stood before the disruption began.

The recovery is not evenly distributed. In the twelve largest urban districts, the median stands at 348 days, and in four of them it is still climbing. Those four districts account for a disproportionate share of the remaining national backlog.

Not enough lawyers, not enough rooms

Chief judges in the lagging districts named the same two constraints. The first is public defender capacity: in three of the four, the office is carrying caseloads above the level its own standards describe as the maximum for competent representation. The second is physical — courtrooms that were converted to other uses and have not been converted back.

Neither is solved by scheduling. “You can put a case on the calendar. You cannot put a lawyer who is in another courtroom on the calendar,” one chief judge said.

A continuance is not a delay in the system. It is the system telling you the truth about how much of it exists.— A chief judge in one of the four districts where the median is still rising

What has worked

Districts that cleared fastest tended to have done two unglamorous things: early case resolution calendars that route straightforward cases to a dedicated judge within thirty days, and a discovery portal that puts evidence in front of the defense without a written request. Both reduce the number of hearings a case needs before anyone argues its merits.

• Coverage: administrative data from 46 state court systems
• National median, arrest to felony trial: 291 days, down from 372 at the peak
• Twelve largest urban districts: 348 days, rising in four
• Most-cited constraint: public defender caseloads above internal maximums

The report’s authors note a limitation worth stating plainly: median time to trial says nothing about cases that never reach trial, which is most of them. A district can shorten its median by pleading cases faster, and the data cannot distinguish that from genuine efficiency.