Alameda County arraignments head back to Oakland

Just ten weeks after Alameda County officials moved all in-custody arraignments to a new courthouse in Dublin, California, the controversial experiment came to an end. Court officials announced this week that arraignments would move back to an Oakland courthouse on September 25.

The initial move to Dublin’s East County Hall of Justice sparked outrage from public defenders and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods told In Justice Today that the move 30 miles outside of Oakland was a “nightmare.”

The inconvenient location made it difficult, if not impossible, for many family members of Woods’ clients to attend arraignments, because of both the time the trip took and the additional cost. The layout of the new courthouse also made public defenders’ work challenging, with few private spaces for lawyers to counsel their clients.

Court officials didn’t specify why they chose to move arraignments back to Oakland, according to the East Bay Times.