Economic Crisis Hits State Court Systems
Yet another legacy of the law-and-order Republican crowd:
Reporting from Brentwood, N.H. -- Come February, the red-brick Rockingham County Courthouse, one of New Hampshire's busiest, will arraign criminal suspects, process legal motions and otherwise deal with murders, mayhem and contract disputes. What it won't do is hold jury trials.
The economic storm has come to this: Justice is being delayed or disrupted in state courtrooms across the country.
Financially strapped New Hampshire has become a poster child for the problem. Among other cost-cutting measures, state courts will halt for a month all civil and criminal jury trials early next year to save $73,000 in jurors' per diems. Officials warn they may add another four-week suspension.
"It brings our system almost to a screeching halt," said county prosecutor James M. Reams. His aides are scrambling to reschedule 77 criminal trials that were on the February docket.
"All the effort to subpoena witnesses and prepare for those trials is right out the window," Reams said, frustration in his voice. "Internally, it's a monumental waste of time. We'll have to redo everything."
At least 19 other states, including California, have slashed court budgets and other government services as their economies have tanked, said Daniel Hall, vice president of the National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit in Williamsburg, Va.
where you can't afford justice.
Some stuff you can't make up!
He'll live on in infamy forever..
Lets see…5% of the worlds population and 25% of the worlds prison population? Maybe we can make a few cuts here and there. Who knows maybe we won’t have people doing 5 to 10 on a grass bust. But then that’s just the old long hair in me talkin’.
(i.e. legal mary jane) maybe we never would've ended up in the spot we're in now. I still think the train left the track in 1978 but it could've been earlier.
how about 1968. remember noxin?
Some stuff you can't make up!
The reason all things financial are going from bad to worse can be found in our not too distant past. There is a great article at www.financialsense.com by Rob Kirby. Seek and ye shall find. The only remaining question is what are WE THE PEOPLE going to do about it? Continue to moan and groan on blogs?
by Rob Kirby | December 22, 2008
In the past, I’ve written papers where the following quotation was included at the end of the treatise as an “exclamation point”:
“We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.” – James Paul Warburg, whose family co-founded the Federal Reserve - while speaking before the United States Senate, February 17, 1950
Today, I feel that I’ve finally got it “the right way around” with this important quote – where it should be – at the beginning of, and in fact the subject of, a treatise of its own..."
[Deleted. Bandwidth is expensive, and posting an entire article can violate Fair Use laws. 3 paragraphs and a link will suffice. You are welcome to pick which 3 paragraphs you want posted and change the ones I left up-Sitemonitor]
Calling the captain of the Titanic. Right rudder ,left rudder full steam ahead can we make steam under water? This here united states, the greatest to big to fail state ship of state, refuses to believe we could be sunk by the most worthless scum ever born in the wheelhouse now i'm going to sleep knowing all's well and nothing, nothing absolutely nothing could sink this magnificent ship of state.
Damn the icebergs, full steam ahead.
No wonder why I haven't been called for jury duty as one way to find work during times of high unemployment and underemployment.
So what about the right to a speedy trial? Get rid of the failed and ignorant drug laws and their would be more than enough money to run the courts. I wonder how many of the stated cases were for so called "drug crimes"? The private prison industry, and it is indeed a big money making industry, makes a ton of cash and ensures it future profits by funneling money to our elected leaders in state and local governments. They also, along with the alcohol industry, big pharma,law enforcement, the re-habs, and many more, stand to lose their gravy train if drugs become legal. So they fund things like d.a.r.e. and coalition for a drug free america, which spread flat out lies and misinformation so that they can continue to throw our citizens, family and any minority that they don't care for at the moment, into prison, and reap a nice sum of dough at the same time. Damn we are a stupid bunch,are we not? And now because of funds, we will have to sit in jail until they can " afford it" I guess. I urge all to find and watch, The great american drug war, the last white hope. How much longer are we going to take this bull-shit scam? At city, county,state and federal levels we need to vote out or against any person running for office who supports this scam. They are making something off of it if they are pushing it (rule of thumb) CEO,citizens,eyes,open.
legalize drugs
pardon all drug offenders
legalize prostitution
pardon all hookers
tax the shit out of both industries
not only do the jails open up, but all court dockets are freed up for violent offenders (and dick cheney) but our economic system will be saved
and even if our system isnt saved, people will either be too high, or fucking too much to care one way or another
make me king, and this will all come to pass
amen
dick chaney's not a violent offender?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Agreed on legalizing drugs. Nothing good comes from it anyways.
I have thought for years drugs are the problem, and they are. Too many people in high places aren't using enough! Thus, they become tense and irritated and to get even, they jail anyone and everyone they can. This makes them feel superior, gives them a momentary high, and thus relaxes them. Plus, and this is a big plus to many of them, THERE IS MONEY TO BE MADE! Lawyers love it, privitized prison owners love it, and therapists love it too! Good times to be had by all!
citations. I watched a judge go through almost 100 cases, reducing almost all to $10 to $50, plus court costs (they gotta get theirs...) and no points on records, just to cut costs. Was VERY refreshing. I went from facing $680 in fines plus six points to $130 in fines and zero points in about 30 seconds! Nearly everyone else had similar experiences. Need more judges like this one...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
What the point of all those laws are if even the judges aren't going to enforce them? Same with drug offenses. If we let all the people charged with drug offenses plea to something considerably lower, what is the point of the law they were charged with in the first place? Makes more sense to look at the laws and change those rather than pretend they are being enforced. But whoever accused the government of making sense?
There are already sheriffs refusing to throw people out of their homes because the bank foreclosed on them.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Uncle Sam went on an incarceration binge courtesy of the War on (Some) Drugs and didn't once consider the eventual cost, as it was assumed that the economic gravy train would never slow down, or even shudder.
That assumption is now proving to be as false as it was when first broached, but nobody back then was thinking twenty years down the road, save for the drug law reformers who knew the system was unsustainable.
So now, we have an economic meltdown running in slow motion, which could accelerate very quickly if we get any economic shocks like another war or more companies disclosing losses. That meltdown can no longer sustain the criminal justice system as it stands.
It's long past time to decide what we want to use our justice system for; whether we want to use it to protect society against real threats to it like warmongers, murderers, rapists, child molesters, etc., or just lock up everybody we're 'mad at'.
Dunno why they run out of money. Instead of pursuing and catching REAL criminals, all I ever see the cops doing is handing out speeding tickets at $200-plus a whack. Ever spend a few hours in traffic court? The money rolls in as fast as the judge can bang his gavel. I had an apartment building, and one of my tenants was dealing drugs. So I called the police, and they sent an officer over. We went in, and there was dope all over the kitchen. However, the tenant wasn't home at the time. The cop took some evidence. However, repeated calls to the police to come and arrest this guy fell on deaf ears. (he finally left anyway)...they were too busy handing out speeding and traffic tickets. What a farce. Right now there is a cop in a patrol car parked in front of my business. He sits there all day, handing out tickers to people who make an illegal right turn on the red light. Yet not 3 blocks from here the crack dealers and hookers walk the streets.
What we're seeing is the result of Capitalism. No system of economic control works well, and the only reason Chrostofascist Capitalism managed to survive this long has been the terrorist atrocities Christian commit against brown people around the world. With the very same globalization that Christian fascists have inflicted on the world, their brand of Capitalist extremism was doomed to fail.
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