There
Goes The Judge: CA's Scary Court-closing Epidemic
06 August 2010By Jane Stillwater
Next Friday I'm going to be the plaintiff in a small
claims court trial -- at least that's the plan. But
according to a judge who recently spoke before the
Berkeley-Albany Bar Association, there's a rather good
chance that I might show up for the trial but there
might not be a courtroom left to hold it in.
Over a delicious luncheon menu of pan-seared salmon,
sauteed asparagus, fruit tarts and Peet's coffee at La
Rose Bistro on Shattuck Avenue, a judge from the
Alameda County court system spent an hour and a half
laying out a series of hard facts and cold realities
with regard to courtroom availability in California in
general and in Alameda County in particular.
"Currently," said the judge, "we are even considering
holding trials in broom closets." I think she was
joking, er, at least I'm hoping that she was.
"The status of Alameda County's courtrooms is
abysmal," stated the judge. "The search for courtrooms
has become desperate here. They are currently using
the grand jury room, which has posts running down the
middle of it. They've also been looking at hallways, a
library and the probate examiner's office since the
Broussard building has been mostly shut down. They are
even moving people from Oakland courthouses down to
Fremont and Hayward. There have been 23 moves in all."
Fremont is a long freaking distance away from Oakland.
It's closer to San Jose than it is Berkeley.
And courtrooms aren't the only thing now being 86ed in
the CA court system. People are disappearing too. "As
for money, 72 people have been laid off. Statewide,
court personnel funding has just taken a 100 million
dollar hit. There was a 2.6 million dollar budget hit
for Alameda County alone. Courts are now being closed
on the third Wednesday of every month. That's twelve
days a year that we can never make up."
Then there's the mandatory furlough days. "In order to
avoid more lay-offs, we've had to cut down people's
hours. And next year's state and county budgets will
be worse that this year's. Judges are considering
voluntary salary cuts."
And California's court security needs are being
effected as well. "We are trying to get enough
sheriff's deputies to cover the courts. By
consolidating courts, we have managed to free up two
deputies however. But the Sheriff's office has also
been financially hit. And then there was the cost of
the Oscar Grant trial. And that has taken up a lot of
sheriff's deputies as well."
So far, the number of judges has not been effected by
the budget cuts, but who knows how long that will
last. "And we need more self-help centers, not less.
As the economy goes down, there will be a much greater
need for self-help centers," and that need will not be
met either. "California's unemployment is currently
the highest in the nation."
By this time in the presentation, I had finished my
salmon and was starting to hanker for dessert -- while
the judge continued her sad litany of judicial wants
and needs that were not going to get met. "We need
more courtrooms. We're not going to get them. And
we're not going to get any more judges either. And
small claims court commissioners are being reduced for
16 to ten. Plus filing fees are going to be increased
because we can't increase taxes."
As I finished up my berry tart and was vaguely
considering the etiquette-related pros and cons of
licking my plate, the judge continued. "This county's
judicial system is definitely economy-driven. We want
a courthouse out in the Pleasanton-Dublin area but
realistically we don't have the money. We need more
judges and more support staff. We are looking at every
single dime being spent. Alameda County saw this
coming and prepared for it but we are still running
tight." Then the waiter served coffee. Yummers!
"We may be forced to move toward having regional
courts instead of county courts," the judge concluded.
"We've already consolidated the municipal courts with
the superior courts. And court administration has
already been centralized -- even its janitorial
services."
So. What will be the answer to this immense problem? I
wanted to suggest to the speaker that we might be able
to use Judge Judy's courtroom when her court wasn't in
session, but that probably wouldn't work out so well
for her.
It appears that a goodly amount of taxpayer money that
used to fund Alameda County's court and prison systems
is being used to fund cool new court and prison
systems in places like Baghdad, Kabul and Tel Aviv
instead of here in Berkeley. Does this mean that the
Middle East has all the money they want for their
courtrooms -- whereas California courtrooms have
become neglected and derelict? Yeah.
You cannot fund a trillion dollars worth of war in the
Middle East and expect that money to come out of
nowhere. And as a result of short-sighted
congressional decisions to spend our taxes on the
luxury of war in the Middle East instead of here in
America for the last ten years, we no longer can
afford to buy basic necessities here at home -- such
as courtrooms.
It appears that the criminals of Baghdad, Kabul and
Tel Aviv have a pretty good ride -- while the
criminals of Oakland and Berkeley, due to our sad lack
of courtrooms and judiciary personnel, are either
having to wait for their trials in overcrowded jails
that taxpayers must pay for or else are running around
free in the streets.
I'd much rather spend our hard-earned money here at
home and have criminals running free in the streets of
Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel-Palestine -- instead of
having criminals running free in the streets of
Oakland and Berkeley.
It just seems such a shame to spend a trillion dollars
to tinker around with the Rule of Law in the Middle
East -- at the risk of losing the Rule of Law here at
home.
But enough about lamenting the loss of our courtrooms
into the money pit of the Middle East. Let's think
about other places where all our court-funding money
has been drained off to in the last ten years -- into
the pockets of bankers, Wall Street gamblers, global
out-sourcers who have systematically destroyed
America's manufacturing base, and, of course, those
ever-present and greedy weapons manufacturers who
trick us into paying them to kill strangers by the
millions. Isn't it time to plug up those money
sink-holes as well?
PS: Regarding my upcoming small claims court case this
Friday, I may or may not be able to tell you what its
outcome will be -- depending on whether or not there
is still a courtroom available to hear my case in. Who
knows? We may end up having to try my case in Kabul.
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