OAKLAND — Justice partners in Alameda County agree its new criminal case management system is a big failure that continues to screw with defendants’ lives despite best human efforts, but the remedy is still under debate.

“We cannot continue in this world,” Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods said Tuesday at a hearing on his motion to demand the county stop using case management software called Odyssey. Related Articles Fremont man pleads guilty to gun charge in federal court

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Since Alameda County Superior Court deployed Odyssey in August, it has caused an untold number of false arrests and false imprisonments, inaccurate court records, mischaracterized rap sheets and a host of other problems for defendants, law enforcement, attorneys and court staff. The number of issues has diminished but not disappeared since the justice partners have been holding regular meetings and court staff has prioritized Odyssey training and backlogs, leading the officials to contemplate abandoning its multi-million investment.

Assistant Public Defender Charles Denton said Tuesday that court clerks have been so busy troubleshooting Odyssey that it’s affecting their ability to put together commitment records for the state that are needed before a county inmate, who’s been convicted, can be transferred to state prison to begin their sentence.

Presiding Judge Morris Jacobson on Tuesday announced he is taking the issue under submission, with plans to return to court on Feb. 7 to review a proposed order written by Woods. Sadly, Jacobson said, Odyssey was supposed to make court operate more efficiently with less staff, but has resulted in the opposite.

“It’s been very, very difficult for us,” Jacobson said.

Woods and his attorneys have filed motions in every new public defender case since mid-November — more than 2,000 in all — to compel the court that to make timely and accurate records of court proceedings or stop using the Odyssey system. Woods said public defenders have counted 150 unnecessary days in jail served among their affected clients, but they assume there are more involving people without the wherewithal to complain, or who have private or court-appointed attorneys.

Jacobson on Tuesday agreed with top officials at the public defenders office that Odyssey is not working for Alameda County and its case load of about 1,000 criminal cases a week. Any given day in the busiest felony courtroom, there can be up to 100 cases on the morning calendar alone.

About half of California’s county court systems use Odyssey, a Tyler Technologies product, but only a few have deployed it in its criminal divisions like Alameda County, said Alameda County Superior Court CEO Chad Finke. Other counties are reporting problems, but officials think Alameda County may have the worst issues because it has such a high caseload.

Officials say that though the number people who have been harmed by Odyssey glitches is impossible to quantify, it is a small percentage compared to the number of criminal defendants. Still, that provides no solace for people getting arrested on recalled warrants or being kept in jail longer than their release date. A false arrest means unnecessary days in jail and/or bail money that doesn’t automatically get returned just because a computer system failed.

Jacobson and Woods on Tuesday differed on whether it was human or computer error recently when a man with Lou Gehrig’s disease was made homeless because he wasn’t released from jail when he was supposed to and missed a flight to Ohio with his sister.

Alameda County is one of California’s donor courts, so a portion of the money it generates is redistributed by the state to courthouses in poorer financial straights. But that’s resulted in Alameda County Superior Court’s $5 million budget deficit in the current fiscal year, which has led to understaffing, reduced public access to clerk’s offices and a closure at four of its five courthouses between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Now the court has to decide whether it’s going to build a county system to interface with the Sheriff’s Office criminal database or work with Odyssey creators to see if they can expand their software to meet Alameda County’s needs. Investing in a new case management system seems unlikely given the court’s budget woes, Finke said.

“Let’s say we are stuck with Odyssey for now,” Finke said.