Costs of the Court System
Politicians promoted the 3-Strikes law by saying it would decrease the costs of the
court system. They said that "locking 'em up" for 25 years or more was going to
keep the criminals from continuously incurring court costs because they wouldn't be able
to commit any more crimes.
The opposite, however, has occurred. Rather than except a plea agreement of 25-to-life
for a small offense, alleged offenders would rather risk having a trial with a jury. In
addition, because of the extreme sentence, legal motions and trials all take on an added
significance when the result could be 25-to-life.
The other problem is that "3-Strikers" aren't necessarily the "career
criminals" that politicians make them out to be. Because one criminal act can count
for multiple-strikes, there are many people who have committed a robbery or a burglary
decades ago and now are getting caught in the 3-Strikes net for petty offenses.
The result has been a huge increase of criminal cases going to trial--in some cases
making the court system set aside civil cases.
The following are some statistics and comments from books and articles on the costs of
the court system. PLEASE SEND US NEW DATA AND ARTICLES IF YOU HAVE THEM.
3-Strike defendants stay an average of 205 days in jail
compared to the average of 53 days
Because of 3-Strike trials, more and more of the county jails are being filled with
jail inmates awaiting trial than serving sentences--which is leading to more people having
to be released and arrest warrants not being served.
County jails are housing more felons, more suspects awaiting trial and more inmates
for a longer time. The Board of Corrections reports that 70 percent of jail inmates are
awaiting trial on felony charges or have been convicted of felonies. Two- and three-strike
defendants account for 11.4% of the jail population. 3-Strike defendants stay an average
of 205 days, compared to 53 days for other felony pretrial inmates. Historical data is
unavailable, but officials say misdemeanors who once inhabited jails have been crowded out
by felons.
Correspondingly, the average length of stay for inmates in county jails has
increased--from 15 days in 1986 to 21 days in 1996. While that statistic captures the
trend, the numbers are driven by inmates at the extreme who spend two hundred or more days
in jail serving longer terms or fighting second or third strike charges that were once
plea bargained. In 1986, 47% of county jail inmates were awaiting trial. In 1996, 59% of
county jail inmates were awaiting trial. Little Hoover
Commission Report, Jan. 1998, p. 17.
In LA, Public Defenders office can no longer handle most misdemeanor
cases because of 3-Strikes.
In Los Angeles, the Public Defenders office can no longer handle most misdemeanor
cases due to the time which must be devoted to 3-Strikes. That office has handled 12,000
3-Strike cases so far. Los Angeles prosecutes 40% of the 3-Strike cases statewide, and 30%
of the cases filed since the law was enacted in March 1994 are still open. Because of the
impact on Los Angeles County, it has filed a claim with the Commission on State Mandates
for $169 million for costs of 3-Strikes to the county in 1994-95 and 1995-96. Letter
from Barbara Lee's Office, 1997.
LA County asking state to pay a couple hundred million in increased
court costs due to the 3-Strikes law
A group of county officials urged an obscure but powerful state finance board to
order California to pony up the funds to meet skyrocketing costs of arresting, prosecuting
and defending criminals under the 3-strikes law enacted four years prior. County officials
say that the 3-Strikes law has caused more legal research on cases, more defendants
seeking trials, more appeals and more inmates spending extra time in county jails.
"As an unintended consequence of three strikes, the county of Los Angeles . . .
[has]
had to provide a newer and higher level of service," said Leonard Kaye, an accountant
with the county auditor-controller's office. As a result, he said, law enforcement costs
have mushroomed.
The financial stakes are enormous for Los Angeles County, which sketched out its
case in 10 telephone book-size volumes, and the rest of the state. In the first year of
the
three-strikes law, for example, the county estimated its added costs at $64 million. One
county official said the price tag is now about $200 million.
Moreover, should the commission embrace the county's position, the state's 57 other
counties, many financially strapped, are expected to piggyback and seek reimbursement
too, which would cost the state millions more. LATimes,
3/27/98.
Many fewer offenders are agreeing to plead guilty in 3-Strike
cases.
The Legislative Analysts office noted at the hearing that although more than 90% of
all felony cases are disposed of through plea bargaining in which the defendant ultimately
agrees to plead guilty, many fewer offenders are agreeing to plead guilty in 3-Strike
cases, presumably because of the mandated longer sentences. This has resulted in many more
cases going to trial and many more defendants being held in county jail awaiting or
undergoing trial. Letter from Barbara Lee's Office, 1997.
Orange County Public Defender's Office has to hire private
lawyers.
The Orange County Public Defender's Office is turning to private lawyers for help in
dealing with the 3-Strikes cases, which have increased nearly 300% in the past 18 months.
As many as 150 3-Strike cases that would ordinarily be handled by the Public
Defender's Office will be assigned to private lawyers in the next year--at a cost expected
to exceed $1 million.
"It's another example of the domino effect of legislation that's not well thought
out and is born in politics and not necessarily in jurisprudence," said Orange County
Public Defender Ronald Y. Butler.
Some attorneys have had as many as 18 3-Strike cases to handle at one time, a caseload
that makes it nearly impossible for lawyers to give defendants the attention they need,
Butler said.
That load, coupled with the frustration of defendants facing life sentences for crimes
that once carried a few years in prison, has prompted some public defenders to request
leaves of absence or reassignments, Butler said.
"It's the penalties these people are facing that creates the stress," Butler
said. "What can I do to save the petty thief from spending the rest of his life in
prison? If you're a good lawyer and sincere, it's got to affect your emotional
state."
"It's almost like you're a doctor who deals with nothing but terminally ill
patients," said Deputy Public Defender David Dworakowski. "Preparing to tell a
client about three strikes is a lot like a doctor preparing to tell a patient he has
cancer. . . . You do everything you can, but it's inevitable that the client will get 25
to life."
Deputy Public Defender Doreen McCarthy recently watched a jury convict her client,
Ronald Villa, of a third strike for stealing five bottles of Head and Shoulders shampoo
from an Anaheim drug store.
"It's very depressing when these crimes are so piddly," McCarthy said.
"He's just an old junkie who unfortunately has some very old robberies. It broke my
heart."
Part of the reason the Public Defender's Office is overwhelmed, defense attorneys say,
is the District Attorney's Office policy of filing every provable 3-Strikes case.
At least to start, private attorneys will be paid $5,000 per case, Carter said. An
additional $2,000 per case will be used to pay private defense investigators. Attorneys
can apply for additional money if the cases require a substantial amount of work, Carter
said.
That is certainly not a substantial amount of money considering the work that will be
expended filing voluminous pretrial motions as is standard in 3-Strike cases, defense
attorneys said. OC-Register, 6/10/96.
California judges estimate 3-Strikes has increased their
workload by more than 10%
According to the state Judicial Council, California's 3-Strikes law has increased
judges' workload by more than 10%. Reports from a smaller number of Superior Courts found
that defendants facing mandatory sentence increases for second and third strikes were much
more likely to go to trial than those charged under other laws.
For defendants not charged with a crime that qualified as a strike, the median rate of
going to trial was only 4%, the council said. Defendants facing a second strike went to
trial 15% of the time, and those charged with a third strike went to trial 45% of the
time.
Courts that handled about half the statewide caseload reported they had fewer
courtrooms available for civil trials as a result of 3-Strikes. LATimes, 2/18/96.
Congestion in LA courtrooms continues despite $80 million
spent.
Over the past 10 years, Los Angeles County's Master Courthouse Construction Program
has spent almost $80 million without adding a single new courtroom to one of the nation's
most congested criminal and civil justice systems.
The crippling shortage of courtroom space, according to interviews and county
documents, continues to force civil litigants to prowl the freeways in pursuit of justice
and pressures prosecutors to strike pleas bargains with accused criminal just to get the
cases off crowded dockets. LATimes,
3/11/98.
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Date last modified: 3/28/98.
