South Carolina and California recently further cuts in their judicial system in the wake of the economic crisis. California, the nation’s largest state judiciary, faces shortened court hours, furloughed employees, loss of judgeships, and less money for state-funded lawyers. “Courts may be open fewer hours. The irony is that in economic downturns the courts get more child support disputes, foster care filings, and landlord tenant problems,” said William Vickrey, the Administrative Director of the Courts. The trial courts will face nearly $250 million in cuts with reduced allocations for representing dependent children, less money for increased pay and health expenses, higher rents, and increased costs of security officers. Even before the projected cuts, Riverside County could not afford enough judges for its criminal caseload and imposed a civil trial moratorium. The moratorium only ended when visiting judges were temporarily brought in, with civil trials being held in closed schools and other buildings to resolve the system’s four-year backlog. Additionally, some prisoners in Riverside were waiting up to four years for their cases to be tried.
In South Carolina, Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal announced measures she’s taking to help make up for the $8.7 million shortfall in the budget of $60 million. The state’s court system is enacting a hiring freeze, authorizing courts to work at “skeleton” staff levels, reducing travel expenses for judges, law clerks and court reports, cutting judges monthly office allowances, and eliminating compilations of recent court decisions. “We’re trying to re-engineer to cut the costs,” Justice Toal said, acknowledging there is “not money that can be brought to the system at this time given the financial crisis.”
According to the 2008 California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, California’s annual costs for the death penalty system are $137 million per year. The cost of a system that imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty would be $11.5 million per year.
(P. MacLean, “Calif. courts may be in for shortened hours, furloughs,” The National Law Journal, February 26, 2009). (R. Brundrett, “Toal outlines cost-cutting in judiciary,” The State (SC), February 26, 2009). (Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, June 30, 2008). See Costs.
