Court Cuts Threaten to Derail Justice : If the State Can’t Make Up the Shortfall, County Should Spread the Pain More Fairly

Mention the criminal justice system and the images called up usually involve uniformed deputy sheriffs making arrests and prosecutors putting people on trial. But the system has other components, including the courts. It does no good to arrest someone if the courts cannot provide a speedy trial, as required by law.

The presiding judge of Orange County’s Superior Court, James L. Smith, rightly has gone public to warn of the consequences of threatened cutbacks in the courts’ budget.

The judge insists he is not crying wolf. He says he and his colleagues on the bench estimate they will need more than $140 million in state and county funding in the 1995-96 budget year to keep civil and criminal trials proceeding normally. But the county plans to cut its funding by $19 million from the already reduced levels forced by the bankruptcy. The state estimates it will increase its allotment by far less than the county’s cuts.

The courts are looking at a cut of at least 20% in county funds. The sheriff and district attorney so far have escaped with combined cuts of $6 million, less than 3% of the original appropriations. The disparity makes it imperative that the Board of Supervisors see if other programs in the Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office can be trimmed, with the savings going to the courts.

Orange County’s problems were mentioned by California Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas in a letter to Gov. Pete Wilson seeking immediate legislative action to head off “a funding crisis in the trial courts” throughout the state.

Extra state money is doubtful, though it would be preferable to an alternative considered by Smith: ordering the county to provide more money for the courts. A better solution would be for the county to try harder to spread the pain among various arms of law enforcement. Moreover, Municipal and Superior Court judges have started trying to make up for shortfalls in their budget. They will probably have to make do with even less as the county copes with funding problems.

Orange County’s judges deserve credit for avoiding having “three strikes” criminal trials overwhelm the system to such an extent that civil courts have had to halt operations to cope with criminal matters. That has happened in some courts in Los Angeles County.

Orange County, which has brought in retired judges to handle some cases, is still threatened by the “three strikes” overload. That makes it all the more important for supervisors to look for additional funds.