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Dwindling State Dollars Has Justice Scrambling

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI

cdolinski@tampatrib.com

Published: December 17, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Cases are piling up in Florida's courts. The prison population is growing. Assault, robbery, burglary and fraud are on the rise.

When the economy tanks, the public's need for courts, prisons and police grows. But like the rest of state government, Florida's justice system has already suffered through two rounds of budget cuts over during the last 18 months could lose up to 15 percent of its budget during this fiscal year and next.

"Any cuts now are going to be direct cuts to service," said Victor Crist, R-Tampa, who presides over criminal and civil justice budgeting in the Senate.

For months, Crist's committee has been brainstorming about ways the justice system can economize - like investigating whether "indigent" defendants are really poor, and exporting some prisoners out-of-state.

Some court officers are skeptical, concerned that some of his cost-cutting ideas could damage the system.

The nearly $6-billion decline in general revenue - mostly state tax and fee collections - is especially bad for the justice system, which relies more heavily on that funding source than many other parts of government.

Courts Crisis

"And not only are we being asked to cut, their actual expenses will be going up that much - so a 15 percent cut could really be a 30 percent cut," Crist said.

A $44-million cut in late 2007 and spring 2008 cost the courts 280 staff positions, said Lisa Goodner, state courts administrator. Another 10 percent chop would mean hundreds more jobs.

Cases already take longer to move through the courts, said Dick Donahoe, executive director of Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober's office. With foreclosure and bankruptcy filings soaring, he said, delays are likely to get worse.

Constitutionally, the Legislature must fund the judicial branch. But court officers grumble that the state doesn't send back enough of the court fees they generate. To end that debate, Crist wants to channel those proceeds into a new trust fund exclusively for the courts.

Goodner welcomed that idea, but Donohoe worries that lawmakers could use that trust fund as a pretext for not providing needed revenue.

Crist, stressing that his proposals are still evolving, said that's not his intent. "I'm trying to keep the state out of court," he said. "If funding for the courts hits a crisis point, the courts will take us to court."

He also wants state attorneys and public defenders to beef up collections of state-mandated fees for their services. Collection rates vary widely across the state, Crist said, so he would hold public attorneys accountable by making them deposit the proceeds into special funds.

But some public defenders and state attorneys balk at funding their offices on the backs of mostly poor defendants.

"Our clients are indigent; some are going to prison, and are not likely to be able to pay much," said Bennett Brummer, Miami-Dade's public defender, who is embroiled in litigation against the state over his lawyers' heavy caseloads.

"More fundamentally, lawyers are supposed to seek the interest of their clients," he said. "If their ability to do that depends on how much they can extract from their clients, it creates a conflict of interest."

Nonsense, said Crist, noting that private attorneys collect fees without conflict. The courts can set up payment plans, he said. "But that individual needs to know, the fact that they're not being required to pay at this time doesn't mean they don't have an obligation to pay something."

Packed Prisons

The Corrections Department will have to build 19 new prisons in the next five years. To ease the pressure, Crist wants to export some inmates to cheaper prisons in nearby states. He also wants to divert offenders near the end of their sentences to "community-based incarceration" in secured facilities like halfway houses and treatment centers.

Only prisoners that have completed work-release programs would qualify for diversion, he said. The Parole Commission would decide which prisoners were sufficiently low-risk.

Sandy Adams, House chief of justice appropriations, said she needs to know more about how the state would choose prisoners for diversion.

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382.

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