Think This Can't Happen?

The Fulton County Justice System is under enormous stress to process tens of thousands of criminal and civil cases with its current employees and judges.
Criminal prosecutions and civil litigation will be delayed even further if hundreds of Justice System employees and staff are laid off as a result of further budget cuts.
The county’s latest budget proposal calls for 10 percent across the board cuts in addition to prior reductions in state and county support for the Justice System. But that approach just doesn’t add up.

Here are some examples that show reducing or eliminating court programs that safely remove defendants from the overcrowded Fulton Jail will only add to the budget:

Jailing pretrial defendants: Daily Cost - $72 x 1,300 = $93,600.
Supervised pretrial release: Daily Cost- $  5 x 1,300 = $  6,500.
Daily saving:                                                             $87,100.

Jailing pretrial defendants: Daily Cost - $72 x 500 = $36,000.
Drug/Mental Health Court:  Daily Cost - $23 x 500 = $11,500.
Daily saving:                                                          $24,500.

What You Can Do:

The Courthouses of Fulton County

When Fulton County was created in December 1853, Atlanta was building its first city hall on a hill overlooking the burgeoning city and officials agreed to set aside half of the building as a courthouse for the new county -- rent-free.

The joint city hall-county courthouse opened in October 1854 and served both Atlanta and Fulton County almost 30 years.

In September 1864 federal troops captured Atlanta and the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry camped on the grounds of the city hall-county courthouse. Although spared from burning during its occupation by Union forces, the city hall-county courthouse suffered abuse.

In October 1865, the Fulton County grand jury recommended the county's part of the joint building be "repaired thoroughly." During Reconstruction, Atlanta was designated state capital, and from July 1868 to January 1869, the city hall-county courthouse took on a third function — Georgia’s Capitol.

Conditions became so overcrowded, however, that the nearby unfinished Kimball Opera House was converted for use as the state’s capitol.

After Georgia’s state government moved to its new home, the city hall-county courthouse continued as home for Atlanta and Fulton County governments for nearly a decade.

In 1877, in a deal to keep the state capital from returning to its pre-Civil War site in Milledgeville, Atlanta officials offered to tear down the city hall-county courthouse and build a new state capitol. When the legislature accepted the offer, Fulton County made plans for a new court facility.

In 1879, the Georgia legislature passed a law allowing Fulton to levy a tax to fund construction of a courthouse.

Fulton County’s new courthouse was completed in 1882. The new two-story red brick structure with a prominent clock tower was located at the corner of Hunter St. [now MLK Jr. Ave.] and Pryor St. —the site of the current Fulton County Courthouse.

Construction of Fulton’s first freestanding courthouse began in 1881. Completed in 1882, the courthouse had cost Fulton taxpayers the grand sum of $100,000.

By 1907, plans were underway for a new, larger courthouse to serve the county containing the Capitol of the New South.

An act passed by the legislature allowed Fulton to issue bonds to finance a new courthouse. In 1911 the old courthouse was torn down and work began on Fulton County's third courthouse.

When completed in 1914 at a cost of $1,250,000, Fulton County had Georgia's first million-dollar courthouse. It was also the state’s largest government building, surpassing the domed Georgia state capitol in square footage.

Despite the court’s impressive size, by the 1960s Fulton County's growing population again necessitated additional space. This time the expansion was for the county's government which had been housed in the Courthouse.

A new six-story Fulton County Administration Building was built behind the Courthouse to house county agencies, officials, and the Fulton County Commission.

By the 1980s, Fulton’s county government had again outgrown its existing facility and in 1986 work began on a new Fulton County Government Center. The modern glass and concrete structure across Pryor Street from the entrance of the Fulton Courthouse was completed in 1989.

The Fulton County Administration Building on Central Avenue was torn down in the 1990s and replaced by a nine-story Fulton Justice Tower that opened in 1993.

Social Media and the Court

I didn't get to go to this year's Court Technology conference, but I have been reading and watching what went on, including that the keynote speaker made the case for the use of social media like Twitter, blogs and Facebook by the courts.

One of the democratizing consequences of the web is that even without funds to pay for going and staying at such gatherings one can hear CTC 2009 Keynoter, NPR Justice Correspondent Ari Shapiro, say that Twitter will soon announce new court opinions and public interest and transparency demands that courts make use of these new technologies.

The video replay of Shapiro's presentation is on the CTC 2009 Blog at http://pluginpowerup.org/ through the National Center for State Court's CTC Conference Video Streams at http://www.icmelearning.com/ctc/

This year's conference program, The Role of Social Networking Tools for the Courts, continued with speakers defining and describing three of these new technologies: blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

Among the reasons cited as to why Courts should use these web2.0 products:
people trust the more personal word of mouth information,

people are already talking about the court, awareness in order to avoid pitfalls,

people are replacing traditional media with social media and

people build relationships with the legal community through engagement with technology.
You see the thread - people.
Blogs are another way to engage people and bring new audiences for court information resulting in a better understanding of the courts by the public. An advantage of blogs is they're not as static as a website and can be updated quickly and frequently and can put a more personal face on the court. The Las Vegas Clark County blog was presented as good example of a court blog.

Twitter was described a great way to listen to the world around you. It allows for the broadcast of real time announcements and can be used to drive awareness to other sites and tools. Presenters even mentioned that liked the way our court the Superior Court of Fulton County Georgia had announcements and real time information on Twitter http://twitter.com/FultonCourtInfo that linked to the court blog http://www.insidecourt.blogspot.com/. and our website http://www.fultoncourt.org/. :)

Facebook can present the courts perspective, discuss and listen. New Jersey courts are on Facebook where they have links to news, photos from court events, announcements and links to YouTube videos.
Judges, court administrators and clerks of court should make awareness and self education about social media a priority.

Each group should monitor the technologies for discussions of court cases or judicial issues. by being aware of the use of social media by jurors and witnesses judges can develop better media access policies. Court administrators can use their knowledge to develop better social media policies for staff and create outreach programs that increase court transparency.

PR guys and gals should add social media to their press contact strategies.

Court clerk’s can use social media to post announcements, spotlight frequently asked questions or create a virtual tour of the court’s work flow.

The very best way to learn about these new technologies, the experts say, is to jump right in, sign up and see how it all works.

Fulton Superior Court judges to work 3 days without pay

Fulton County Superior Court judges have voted to work three days without pay in response to the state’s fiscal crisis.

Chief Judge Doris Downs said the court’s judges will voluntarily reduce their salary by one day each month for the rest of this year.

“This is not a furlough, it is a voluntary reduction in pay” explained Chief Judge Downs. The Courts will remain open for business as usual.

“It is important to this bench that the public see no cuts in service,” she said. “The only cut will be in the judges’ salaries.”

The Fulton Superior Court bench adopted this cost-saving measure because the Georgia Constitution forbids judges’ salaries from being cut, but it does not prevent them from returning a portion of their pay.

Downs said that the Fulton Superior Court judges hope their action will prevent further cuts which will impact the Court’s ability to hear and decide cases.

The days that the judges are forfeiting their pay are October 9; November 25 and December 23. Those days were selected because they coincide with furlough days adopted by some other jurisdictions.

Fulton Superior Court is the state’s largest and busiest trial court with more than 30,000 cases filed annually.

Reducing Family Violence

This week our court marked the beginning of a partnership with two volunteer groups who are seeking to reduce the toll of domestic violence.

Since February more than 1,600 people have come to the Safe Families Office set up in Courtroom 6G.

Inside they have found help. Help in overcome their fear. Help in taking steps to remove themselves from the constant threat of violence.

One woman came seeking a temporary protective order from her husband, who was at home with their children.

She told the volunteers in Safe Families Office that the night before, distraught over the loss of his job her husband became enraged as they argued and pulled a gun on her. Safe Families volunteers quickly helped her obtain the necessary order, but it was what they afterwards that made the real difference.

As they do with all Safe Families clients, a volunteer walked with the woman through our sprawling court complex to the Fulton County Sherriff’s office to be sure the Sherriff had everything needed to serve the order. Because the woman’s husband had a gun and because the victim suspected there may be violence when she returned, the Safe Families volunteer arranged for Sheriff’s deputies to accompany her home.

As she had feared, her husband brandished the gun when she arrived and held their children hostage. A SWAT team was called and eventually the standoff was resolved without anyone being injured.

But what could have happened to that woman and all the others is what keeps Safe Families volunteers from the Partnership Against Domestic Violence and Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers coming back day after day.

And, while all of the stories don't end as well, our Court is proud to support the work of these dedicated volunteers.

Our court was one of the first to establish a dedicated Family Court to address the issues unique to domestic litigation.

Family Court , begun in July 1998, includes legal, psychological, and social services professionals who help resolve multiple family disputes in a coordinated, non-confrontational, and speedy manner. In 2008, Family Court heard more than 5,000 cases. More than 22,500 people called the Court's Family Law Information Center for assistance and more than 12,200 people came to the center for assistance, including free lawyer consultations.

Family Court’s free Internet-based I-CAN! program helps self-represented individuals complete legal forms in domestic cases.

Walking the Wire

The process of deciding to grant bail to a pretrial defendant came into the news here recently when a 17-year-old on bond in a murder case was arrested in the aggravated assault of a young mother and her 1-year-old child.

Most of the coverage was about a number of whys.

Why had the judge allowed someone facing such a serious charge out of jail?

Why did law enforcement not immediately arrest the defendant after he cut off his GPS monitoring device?

Why was a nonelected magistrate allowed to decide on bond in criminal cases such as this one?

All of the questions were legitimate, but revealed a total misunderstanding of the judicial system.

It is the responsibility of the judiciary to be the impartial executors of the law. In the case of bond the law puts the burden exactly where most would have it if they were the accused - on the state.

The state must show that the person seeking bond presents a risk of flight to avoid prosecution, a risk of harm to other persons, a risk of intimidation of witnesses or a risk to the general population.

Those risks must be particular rather than vague and general. Lacking that showing each and every defendant has a right to a reasonable bond.

Where most people who disagree with the granting of bond disagree with the law is in its requirement that particular risks must be shown. Some would argue that the very charge brings risk. Risk that someone would flee to avoid proseuction, harm others, intimidate witnesses or bring danger upon the community at large.

Their argument has validity, however it misses the point. While you may believe that those disagreements with the requirements of the law are valid, judges must uphold the law as written. Changes must come from legislation, not the bench.

The recent incident did have at least one positive outcome.

The judges of our court revisited the method for chosing and evaluating electronic monitoring companies and are using a recent revision of state law to create stronger requirements for providing notice to law enforcement when a defendant violates any of the restrictions imposed in a judge's bond order.

COOPed Up

Twitter went down today. And before you ask, I didn't break it.

But it was a good reminder that we all need to back up every technology with the basics.

So instead of Tweeting my news updates today I emailed them. Yes it is more cumbersome with having to enter email addresses or distribution groups and isn't available to everyone on the net, but it gets the message out.

But what if the entire doggone internet goes down?

That's when my years are an advantage. I still have and know how to use a fax machine. Yes, that's even more trouble than email, but will work when the computers are just extra large paper weights.

And if the phone lines go down I have a backup for the fax. It's a copy machine. Yes, then I have to hand out the news updates, but I can do it and those who really need to know will probably be willing to schlep to the courthouse for the information.

My point. Don't let your reliance upon technology paralyze your ability to function.

That's the key to a workable Continuity of Operations Plan (the COOP of the title).

My COOP includes a paper copy of the Court's Crisis Communications Plan in a three-ring binder, and rubber bins in which I store my emergency "Go Kit."

The kit contains: pens, paper (copy, notebook, pads), stapler, paper punch, more 3-ring binders, sticky notes, highlighters, tape, maps of the area showing location of alternative court sites, emergency services, hospitals, a laptop computer with thumb drives, portable printer, a power generator, extension cords with multiple ends (lighted, ground fault circuit interrupter), lamps, light bulbs, flashlights and batteries, podium, easels and paper, paper shredder, etc., letterhead, paper forms and supplies adequate for 24-48 hours, camera, paper contact lists: including court group email, county, state, federal, Non Governmental Organizations and private sector resources, a FEMA public affairs manual, local media guide with after hours contact numbers, press releases (pre-scripted for weather, criminal act, chemical, biological, radiological events), reader boards, court fact sheets, first aid kit, change of clothing, toiletries, prescription medications, a small refrigerator, food, bottles of water, etc.

Well, you never know.

Breaking the Cycle

Yesterday I was talking with my court administrator about problems facing the judiciary and we agreed that recidivism is probably the most serious and difficult to address.

A key reason is that nearly 70 percent of the felony detainees in our Fulton County Jail are on medications for various mental disorders and two-thirds of a large group of detainees tested by Fulton Superior Court tested positive for drugs. As one experienced jurist once told me "If we didn't have drugs we wouldn't have much business," so too without mentally ill offenders our courts would be almost empty.

So today when I saw our county's commission chairman pop into a press conference held by Atlanta's mayor and police chief to tamp down a furor over a rash or recent high profile (i.e. famous people victims) crimes I was surprised and pleased by his focus on the problem of repeat offenders.

John Eaves, the Fulton Commission chair, said he has parternered with law enforcement and the courts in Atlanta and Fulton County to set up a reentry program for felons returning to Fulton from prisons. He promised to work with city officials to deal with the problems posed by criminals.

After all, Eaves pointed out, every offender caught in Atlanta ends up in the county jail, which he said is overrun by mentally ill and addicted repeat offenders. Without addressing those underlying engines propelling these detainees to commit additional crimes the problem will only get worse, Eaves said.

I'm anxious to learn more about Eaves' effort because it is a brilliant concept, one that our chief judge has been trying to spark for several years.

One especially successful such program that Chief Judge Doris Downs points to when promoting the idea has been operating in Savannah, GA for some years. Called the Savannah Impact Center, it houses job, educational, counseling and other services for offenders coming back from prison stints along with offices for probation and other law enforcement agencies concerned with tracking and monitoring those coming back to their communities after serving their time.

The U.S. Department of Justice also recognizes prisoner reentry as a key vulnerability in our nation's criminal justice system. Here is what the DOJ's website has to say about the problem:

"Nearly 650,000 people are released from state and federal prison yearly and arrive on the doorsteps of communities nationwide. A far greater number reenter communities from local jails, and for many offenders and /defendants, this may occur multiple times in a year. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) over 50 percent of those released from incarceration will be in some form of legal trouble within 3 years. In his 2004 State of the Union, President Bush proposed “a four-year, $300 million prisoner re-entry initiative to expand job training and placement services, to provide transitional housing, and to help newly released prisoners get mentoring, including from faith-based groups."

For a better understanding of the effect of mental illness on recidivism take a look at the Public Broadcasting System's Frontline series program The Released. Its exploration of what happens to mentally ill offenders once they are released from prison found that within 18 months of being released two-thirds had been re-arrested.

Fulton County Superior Court

I was surprised recently when someone said they didn't know that the Fulton County Superior Court is the largest and busiest trial court of general jurisdiction in the State of Georgia.

I really shouldn't have been. As The Eagles song Center of the Universe points out, "This isn't the center of the universe, it's just where I want to be." So allow me to introduce the Court.

With 20 Judges elected countywide and a staff of some 200, Fulton County Superior Court is the largest and busiest trial court of general jurisdiction in the State of Georgia.

Judges of Superior Court in Georgia hear administrative appeals and preside over civil, major criminal, and domestic relations cases.

Fulton County, with a population in excess of 960,000, comprises the Atlanta Judicial Circuit, Georgia’s only single-county Judicial Circuit. Fulton County includes Atlanta, the state’s capitol.

The Court offers a variety of programs and services designed to provide the citizens of Fulton County with meaningful access to the judicial system.

• Alternative Dispute Resolution - The ADR Program provides citizens methods to resolve legal disputes other than the traditional trial. Civil mediation, case evaluation, and non-binding civil arbitration are speedier alternatives offered to parties in civil and domestic actions filed in the Superior and State Courts.

• Caseflow Management - This office keeps track of all cases - criminal, civil, and domestic relations - as they proceed through our court. Caseflow Management also generates the annual case count to determine the exact number, type, and nature of each case considered by a Superior Court Judge.

• Business Court - Established by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2005, the Business Court provides a specialized venue for complex commercial litigation with damages sought in excess of $1 million dollars or that involve contractual disputes, commercial litigation, securities, or questions of corporate, limited liability company or partnership law. Its efficiency and success have greatly increased the number of cases filed in Business Court.

• Drug Court - Since 1997 our treatment-oriented accountability court has proven effective for non-violent, drug dependent offenders. More than 400 individuals are enrolled in this innovative accountability court. Defendants who successfully complete the requirements of the 12-18 month program at "Hope Hall," avoid jail time, while rebuilding their lives. 67 percent of graduates never commit another crime.

• Family Court - Ours was the first Family Court in Georgia. Begun in July 1998, it includes legal, psychological, and social services professionals who help resolve multiple family disputes in a coordinated, non-confrontational, and speedy manner. Family Court’s free internet-based I-CAN! program helps self-represented individuals complete legal forms in domestic cases.

• Jury Services - More than 100,000 citizens are called for jury service in Fulton County each year. To accommodate citizens, Superior Court was the first court in Georgia to adopt the One Trial/One Day service term. Superior Court trial jurors serve a term of either one trial or one day.

• Law Library - The Law Library serves the legal information needs of the local judiciary, members of the Georgia State Bar, Fulton County citizens, and local government departments. The Law Library also operates the Jail Law Library, which provides legal materials for Fulton County Jail detainees.

• Mental Health Court - Established in 2006, the Mental Health Court is operated in partnership with Fulton County Mental Health Department’s Division of Addictive Diseases. In the first year the Court had supervised 43 defendants who had been arrested 766 times prior to entering the Mental Health Court. Thirty-five percent had been in prison and most had been hospitialized for mental disorders. Recidivism was 11 percent after the first year of operation.

• Pretrial Services - Pretrial Services is a 24-hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week supervised release program. Pretrial officers screen, assess and intensively supervise qualified defendants prior to their trial. 97 percent of pretrial defendants observe all release requirements and appear at all court hearings.

• Public Information and Court Tours - Through brochures, press releases, its website www.fultoncourt.org and printed publications, the Court seeks to keep the public informed about Court services and the judicial system. The Court also provides Court Tours for citizens to speak to a Judge, observe a court proceeding. Contact pio@fultoncourt.org for information.

Managing Court Cases

To manage or not to manage.

That was the question this week as the Hon. William F. Dressel, president of the National Judicial College, and court management guru Barry Mahoney co-lead sessions in Atlanta on case management for judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers and clerks.

Fulton County's Superior Court organized the three-day seminar. Buoyed by the success of a strict case management routine that has cut disposition of almost all nonviolent drug and property felony cases to just nine weeks, court leaders are poised to expand efficient case management to all cases - criminal and civil.

Poised, but not yet diving in.

A little background may help set the scene for what played out in the meeting room at the top of the high-rise James H. "Sloppy" Floyd state government building which towers over the gold-domed Georgia Capitol.

Georgia has a non-unified court system. Each of the state's 159 counties elects its own judges, district attorneys and clerk of court. Each court operates independently, although loosely bound by the Administrative Office of Courts, which functions mostly as a pass-through for funding.

Each of Georgia's Superior Courts is comprised of from two to 20 autonomous judges who also operate as they see fit. Having a single method of managing cases is still more a dream than a routine, even in the largest Superior Court in Fulton County.

That makes just getting all members of the Fulton judicial community into that room a big step.

But our court has been taking steps toward the management ideal espoused by Judge Dressel and Mahoney, who heads the Denver-based Justice Management Institute.

In 2006, the court began assigning all single defendant, nonviolent felony cases to a single judge with the same prosecutor and defense lawyer carrying the cases through from arrest to disposition.

This so-called FastTrackFelony calendar has a mandated timetable for each stage of a case.

As a result, the total pending felony caseload in the Superior Court of Fulton County was reduced by 44 percent from the inception of the FastTrackFelony Calendar in May of 2006 through May of 2009.

That is a reduction of some 3,500 pending felony cases from more than 8,000 to some 4,500. FastTrackFelony cases – primarily single-defendant, non-violent property and drug cases – account for more than 60 percent of all felony cases before the Court.

This dramatic reduction is the result of dedication and hard day-to-day work by judges and employees of the Court, and staff of the Fulton County District Attorney, Fulton Superior Court Clerk and Fulton Public Defender. It also proves that case management works!

Here's how.

All FastTrackFelony court defendants are interviewed and assessed for court-appointed counsel at the Fulton County Jail where they are scheduled for a first appearance hearing within 24 to 48 hours of arrest.

After First Appearance hearings, all FastTrackFelony cases are assigned to cases managers. The case assignments are vertical, meaning that the assigned case managers follow their cases from accusation or indictment through final disposition.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers also follow the same case through all stages of the calendar. Vertical assignment is a key to keeping cases on track for disposition.

An All Purpose Hearing operated by the Court’s Magistrates, also helps keep cases on track by enforcing time standards prior to indictment or accusation. After defendants have appeared in court for Plea and Arraignment hearings, the final stage is trial.

Cases not resolved by pleas are immediately calendared for trial. Less than .007 percent of all FastTrackFelony cases actually go to trial.

The ability of our court to conclude these within only 9 weeks of arrest benefits the justice system in a number of ways:

· There has been a huge reduction in bond forfeitures in these cases due to timely processing.

· FastTrackFelony defendants almost never have multiple cases pending before the first case is ever reached for disposition.

· It has enabled us to divert the drug addicted and the mentally ill for treatment more efficiently.

· It has dramatically reduced the need for inmate transport to the courts complex since plea and arraignment hearings in these cases are heard at the jail.

Being Georgia's largest court has driven much of the change.

Since 2002, Fulton Superior Court’s caseload has increased 27 percent and it expected to exceed 38,100 cases by year’s end. Because of our location, Fulton County's Superior Court not only serves the judicial needs of the county's approximately 980,000 residents, but also hears all lawsuits filed against Georgia’s state government and many of the large corporations headquartered in Atlanta.

While we have made strides in streamlining the processing of FastTrackFelony cases we still face a serious problem of backlog cases. The court won a grant to fund a one-year project to reduce the number of cases over a year old, but our court's leaders believe that without reworking how we process and manage cases the backlog will return.

That brings us back to the reason for the gathering at the Top of the Slop as the site of this week's meeting is known.

Whether some or all of the recommendations outlined by Dressel and Mahoney this week are put into action remains to be seen.

But the presence of so many of our judges, their law clerks and case managers, the elected district attorney and key members of his staff, the public defender and his assistants and top officials and managers of the Clerk's office indicates we may be about to take the plunge.

More later.