Prosecutors, public defenders face budget cuts

From the Louisville, KY, Courier-Journal:

Prosecutors and public defenders would see their budgets shrink over the next two years, even as the state spends millions to add beds for an expected growth in inmate populations, according to Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposed budget.

Beshear said prosecutors and attorneys with the state Department of Public Advocacy will “have to tighten their belts considerably.”

The budget for public defenders would drop 3.6 percent from current spending, with declines of 2.6 percent for commonwealth’s attorneys and 1.7 percent for county attorneys.

At the same time, Beshear is recommending the legislature approve $39.8 million in bond funds to build an 816-bed expansion at the Little Sandy Correctional Complex in Elliott County, to be opened in 2011.

The state expects the felon population to grow 6 percent over the next two years, an increase of more than 1,000 inmates.

Prosecutors and public defenders said yesterday that increasing room for inmates while decreasing budgets for those who represent and prosecute them makes little sense.

Ernie Lewis, head of the Department of Public Advocacy, said his lawyers are laboring under huge caseloads that far exceed national standards, and they couldn’t handle more cases if budget cuts force him to lay off staff.

“Our belt is already so tight that we have no room for budget cutting,” he said.

Lewis said public defenders may have to decline to represent some poor people charged with crimes.

“We can’t do more cases than we can ethically handle,” he said.

Butler County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tim Coleman, a member of the Prosecutors Advisory Council, said the budget for prosecutors is “at the bone now.”

“Any cut will hurt our effort and the effort of justice in our state,” he said.

Coleman and Lewis pointed out that budget cuts most likely will mean fewer prosecutors and public defenders, since there is little else to trim.

“The offices are all people,” Coleman said.

The group will review the state penal code and sentencing guidelines to look at more appropriate punishments and recommend ways to manage the judicial system, he said.

Beshear said he hopes the task force can have some recommendations by the legislature’s next budget session and perhaps find alternatives to incarceration for some defendants.

Talk about counter-intuitive. Read the entire story.