Marshal to Lay Off Quarter of Staff : Budget: A 52% reduction in funding is forcing the cutbacks. Agency provides security at federal courts.

The U.S. Marshals Service, which provides security for federal courts and apprehends most federal fugitives, has been hit with sweeping budget cuts that will force layoffs of nearly a quarter of its employees in Los Angeles, federal officials said Friday.

“It is kind of rough,” said Craig L. Meacham, the U.S. marshal in Los Angeles. “It’s taking a real hack out of the criminal justice system.”

Meacham said he got the budget news last week, which calls for a 52% reduction in funding for the Los Angeles office. That, Meacham said, leaves him with no option other than cutting employees and scaling back the service’s Southern California operations.

Court security and prisoner transport services will get first priority as layoffs are considered, Meacham said, because the Marshals Service is required to perform those functions. But as staff is let go, it could mean reductions in asset seizures and enforcement operations, such as arresting federal fugitives.

Meacham’s office is responsible for the largest federal court district in the nation, the Central District of California, which has 16 million residents. The marshal oversees about 150 full- and part-time employees. He said the cuts will force him to lay off as many as 40 between now and the end of the year.

“There’s just no way to avoid it,” Meacham said. “We don’t have the money.”

Some layoffs occurred this week, employees said, and pay cuts went into effect for some who remain.

Founded in 1789, the Marshals Service is the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agency. It has been especially hard hit as the Clinton Administration attempts to trim federal spending. Its headquarters has taken the hardest hit, but service offices across the country are also absorbing cuts.

Bill Licatovich, a spokesman for the Marshals Service in Washington, said the cuts in Los Angeles are typical. “We have 94 districts, and 94 districts will be cut,” Licatovich said.

“In every district, from Guam to the Virgin Islands and from Alaska to Florida, we’re cutting back.”

Overall, the Marshals Service received $20 million less in appropriations than it anticipated needing, Licatovich added. Most of the reductions will come by slashing overtime, part-time employees, travel, supplies and other costs, he said.

Although Meacham said officials were braced for budget cuts, the size of the reductions angered many workers. Some complained that their counterparts in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration got better treatment.

“Everyone here is wondering what we did to annoy (Atty. Gen.) Janet Reno,” one Marshals Service employee in Los Angeles said. Senior staff members of the Los Angeles office met to discuss the cuts Wednesday. Minutes from that meeting reveal the office’s deep displeasure.

“Bottom line, we are all going to have to pitch in and perform ancillary functions that have normally been assigned to part-time employees, while still maintaining our normal workload and assignments,” the minutes state.