Alabama Courts Face a Huge Budget Crisis
Alabama's courts face a huge crisis that threatens the administration of justice in our state. This crisis is not the fault of those running our court system. In fact, these employees have worked very hard to keep the courthouse doors open despite having very few resources to do their jobs. The administration of justice is one of the most vital functions of government. Yet, the Alabama legislature and many other state legislatures chronically underfund the system.
Because of this underfunding, Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb issued an Administrative Order in April allowing individual courts the option of closing on Friday. The Chief Justice's Order also allowed local courts the option of cancelling jury trial weeks. Here, in Madison County, our local Judges have worked very hard to keep the courthouse running.
Despite their efforts, the system statewide faces devastating lay-offs by the end of this month. According to an article in The Birmingham News, these lay-offs will cause about 1/3 of the remaining employees in the court clerks' offices around the state to lose their jobs. That is "remaining" employees. This is not the first round of lay-offs. Instead, it is a lay-off of even more employees from an already understaffed system.
A recent article from The National Law Journal puts the crisis in perspective. According to the article:
All told, too many of our judiciaries receive as little as 1% or less of the state budget pie and none more than 3%. In other words, the entire third co-equal branch of government receives, on average, less than some individual executive departments.
You know the crisis in Alabama is especially bad when the same article begins by citing the following example from our state:
When you call a certain family court in Alabama you get a prerecorded message at the courthouse apologizing that no one can take your call. It's not the weekend and it's not off-hours. It's two o'clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday and, as the message explains, budget reductions from the statehouse mean there is no money to staff the line.
This is a family court, where matters at the core of our lives are decided. Marriages are concluded, families are divided and, perhaps most importantly, children are considered. That unanswered call is from a battered spouse trying to get a protection order. It's a parent trying to get information about a custody hearing.
Today, the Huffington Post also published an article on the nationwide crisis facing our state judicial systems. That article discusses a case in another state that has been pending 10 years without a trial.
Our court system is a vital, necessary part of our government. The system has functioned with far fewer resources than other government agencies, for years. If we care about a system of justice that operates for all our citizens, we must insist that the court system receives a fair share of necessary funding at every level.
UPDATE: On Friday, the Madison County Commission agreed to loan money to the State in order to prevent several additional lay-offs in our local court system. This is much needed and will greatly help. The growth in Huntsville and Madison County coupled with the failure of our State to provide adequate funding for additional Judges and staffing, have overburdened our local court system. While this is a great development in Huntsville, many other communities in Alabama are not so fortunate. Unless adequate funding is provided statewide, we will continue to see problems providing justice to the citizens of our State. Here is a cite to the article about Madison County. http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/08/post_693.html