Cuts that cost us more

Florida's court system today is not your father's court system. There was a time when judges did little more than preside at trials and render judgments, but that model tends to recycle problems rather than solve them. Today's state courts have adapted to meet modern needs, with drug treatment options, subsidized divorce mediation programs and innovative court structures. When the time for budget-cutting comes, it would behoove lawmakers in Tallahassee and local county officials to keep in mind that if the problem-solving elements of the state courts are eliminated, Florida will be buying itself much more expensive social and criminal justice problems down the road.

Chief Judge Robert Morris Jr. of the 6th Judicial Circuit worries that the efficacious programs offered to residents of Pinellas and Pasco counties may soon be at risk. Over the last fiscal year, he says, the statewide judiciary has faced about a 2 to 3 percent cut in its budget. Much more, Morris says, would probably mean closing down some of the invaluable services that keep the system operating smoothly and offer people a helping hand.

A cost-effective nighttime traffic court run by magistrates rather than judges processes about half the 250,000 annual cases. Without this help the daytime system would be overloaded, Morris says, yet this would probably be among one of the first things on the chopping block.

Couples facing divorce get subsidized mediation services. These services allow couples to negotiate their division of property and child custody outside the adversarial posture of the courtroom. It saves valuable judicial resources. But the program needs additional funding just to make it through this fiscal year, and may not survive future budget tightening.

Providing addicts with treatment rather than sending them to jail is often the best way to address the social menace of drug abuse. Treatment reduces recidivism and jail crowding, and gives addicts a chance to be drug-free and productive again. But treatment services are viewed as one of those expendable "extras" when money gets tight - a viewpoint that couldn't be more shortsighted.

Morris worries that other valuable programs such as the circuit's small claims mediators, its specialized drug and unified family courts and the psychologists who evaluate juvenile defendants, may also be at risk if the state and counties reduce funding levels.

A responsible approach to budget-cutting is not to order an across-the-board reduction in every agency's budget. It is to evaluate each state- and county-funded service and hold harmless those that efficiently serve an essential or particularly valuable function. If state lawmakers and county officials make added cuts to our local courts, they are essentially ensuring that criminal and civil justice costs will rise in the long term. Today's courts work to solve some of society's most intractable problems, but without resources those efforts might end.

[Last modified February 10, 2008, 20:31:55]