Overview

The Judicial Branch's Paperless Arrest Warrant Network (PRAWN) was implemented in 2002 after Public Act 00-209 authorized the entry of warrants for Failure to Appear in a central computer system.

PRAWN was created in response to 2000 legislation that authorized the court to enter warrants for criminal defendants who fail to appear for court in a central computer system. The system was implemented in all municipal police departments in August 2005 and all state police units in March 2007. It was reprogrammed to accommodate other types of court warrants and arrest orders.

The system is now utilized by more than 140 local, state, and federal criminal justice agencies, and recent statistics illustrate that more warrants are being served as a result.

PRAWN employs two components to facilitate the service of such warrants: the inquiry component, and the custodial processing component.
  1. Inquiry: most criminal justice agencies in CT now have the ability to locate detailed warrant information and identify the agency holding the warrant, when applicable.

  2. Custodial Processing: new warrants are distributed in a “paperless” medium, so any authorized law enforcement agency can serve a warrant by printing the required custody documents from the system. 
The inquiry component enables criminal justice officials to ascertain whether a subject has an outstanding arrest warrant. When an arrest warrant is issued, specific data is entered in the Criminal Motor Vehicle System (CRMVS). This data is instantly transmitted to PRAWN and therefore, available to criminal justice agencies throughout the state, either through direct inquires in PRAWN, or through more general inquires in the state police Connecticut Online Law Enforcement Communications Teleprocessing System (COLLECT) and the Connecticut Information Sharing System (CISS).

Whenever any active warrant is located in PRAWN, any authorized law enforcement agency can use the system's custodial processing component to serve the warrant. PRAWN includes other types of judicial custody orders including warrants for Violation of Probation, and outstanding Judgment Mittimus for offenders who fail to satisfy their sentences.

For current PRAWN statistics, visit http://jud.ct.gov/statistics/Fail_to_appear.htm.