L.A. Courts Staggering Under ‘3-Strikes’ Load : With costs and pressure skyrocketing, the county needs aid

Be careful what you wish for, goes the adage. By a wide majority, Californians wished for an end to revolving-door justice, and with the passage of the “three strikes and you’re out” measures this state got one of the nation’s toughest criminal sentencing laws.

The Legislature passed one version, and the voters, by initiative last November, passed a second. Under both, defendants convicted of a third felony face prison terms from 25 years to life. Second felony convictions carry double the usual sentence. But while voters and lawmakers greatly raised the stakes for criminals, they raised not one additional cent for prosecution or defense or additional judges.

Predictions of high costs to implement “three strikes” have, unfortunately, come true in spades. Nowhere is the bill higher than in Los Angeles County, which long has had the largest criminal caseload in the state.

The most recent, and most depressing, assessment comes from the Countywide Criminal Justice Coordination Committee. The committee is chaired by Supervisor Gloria Molina and includes representatives from the courts and law enforcement. The panel’s conclusions are suggested by an illustration on the cover of the report: One of the two Ionic columns that frame the title is cracked. Indeed, the introduction states that”the structure is weakening and that major cracks are leading to serious and unacceptable breaches in our system of justice.”

Though total felony filings have remained relatively constant in the county, so-called “strike” cases are being filed much faster than they are being resolved. As a result, the caseload pressure on prosecutors, defenders and the Superior Court is crushing.

Strike defendants more often opt for a jury trial than nonstrike defendants, and this has boosted the number of criminal jury trials in L.A. County by 25%. These additional trials fill court calendars, causing major delays for civil cases. In the Superior Court’s central district alone, 420 civil trials, occupying the equivalent of 30% of the district’s courtrooms, were displaced by criminal trials last fiscal year.

The county’s costs for “three strikes” are skyrocketing. For fiscal 1994-95 those costs--for the court, the district attorney and for incarcerating defendants before trial--totaled more than $101 million. Costs for this fiscal year are projected at 306% higher. And this does not even take into account the job stress and burnout now afflicting many judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers.

As the county verges on financial insolvency, additional local funds for more courtrooms, prosecutors, defense attorneys and jail cells simply are not available. Instead, the district attorney, along with leaders from the Superior Court, the public defender’s office and others, is seeking additional funds from Sacramento and legislative permission for the county to raise additional funds locally. Both should be granted.

A 1972 law provides county funding in some cases when the Legislature imposes more mandated services on local governments. If the impassioned pleas of states to be spared unfunded federal mandates make sense, counties stumbling under the weight of state mandates have an equally compelling case

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‘Three Strikes’

More than half of all “third-stike” cases filed in Los Angeles County since the law took effect in March 1994 are still open.

% of all cases still open

All felonies 32%

2nd-strike cases 37%

3rd-strike cases 53%