Innovations in Hudson County included establishing a screening process in a central judicial processing court to make most screening decisions within 24 hours of arrest and the use of a remand court to hear downgraded indictable cases originating in Jersey City and involving repeat offenders or multiple offenders. Middlesex County also created a central intake for all felony cases, but it gave the central intake responsibility to the presiding judge of the criminal division of the superior court. The presiding judge can make decisions on diversion, pleas, and sentencing because of immediate access to centralized probation office information. Probation staff are geographically assigned to all felony cases referred from a municipal court and are responsible for ensuring that information gathered from bail through sentencing reports is integrated and quickly available to the superior court. A study commissioned by the National Institute of Justice has shown that both counties significantly improved their court performance at no apparent cost to the quality of justice and with no significant negative impact on law enforcement or corrections. Figures and footnotes.