January 27, 2011 The January 26, 2011 Criminal Justice Committee meeting began with a promising update from Criminal Court Chief Judge Terry Alarcon. He reported that he has already requested that the 13 judges of Criminal District Court come to a consensus over which case allotment system to move forward with by February 4.
“I would like to get this off my ‘to do’ list,” Alarcon told the Council’s Criminal Justice Committee, who asked the judge to give a brief update on the situation.
The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office and Orleans Public Defenders want cases to be assigned to a judge the moment a person is arrested, a system they say will allow them to better manage their offices. The judges tried this system for three months before returning to their previous system in which cases are allotted after charges are filed. The decision to halt the new system came when some judges felt their workloads were being unevenly distributed.
Recently, the New Orleans Inspector General’s office reported that the system preferred by the DA and public defender would work better. Judge Alarcon said he will give the Council and the public an update on a resolution as soon as possible. If a decision is not made in early February, Councilmembers Clarkson and Guidry hope to invite all invested parties – including the NOPD, the District Attorney, and Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton – to discuss the issue in Council Chambers so that the best system can be put in place.
The remainder of the Criminal Justice Committee meeting focused on the juvenile justice system of New Orleans, primarily as it pertains to the Youth Study Center.
Chief Juvenile Court Judge Ernestine Grey stated that the best practice is to only incarcerate those youth who are a threat to the public and are at risk to commit more crimes. Otherwise, education and recreation are key components to crime-free youth.
Judge Tracey Flemings-Davallier then listed the justice system’s alternatives to incarceration for young people, including mentoring, counseling, and electronic monitoring. The judges said they’d like an entire juvenile justice complex, where an array of such services could be located adjacent to the Youth Study Center (YSC), the detention center for youth in pre-trial status. Judge Flemings-Davillier said, “We’d have all the social services available for those youth that are on probation as well as those that are detained. We’d have the courts there so that the judges and all of the programs that we run have access to those youth.” A centralized juvenile justice complex would greatly help parents, who cannot always get to a probation officer, a court, and a counselor with their child in one day.
The Director of the Youth Study Center, Glenn Holt, then spoke about the YSC, bringing the meeting discussion to focus on rebuilding it. The center currently holds approximately twenty youth at a time. The juveniles detained there are those who hold first degree murder charges or have violated electronic monitoring.
There is a concern about rebuilding the center, as Judge Lagarde expressed by saying, “I’m very concerned that we’re not going to get that complex anytime soon. There are too many people against it.”
The current facility is in Councilwoman Susan Guidry’s district. She said, “I’m very bullish for us getting a new Youth Study Center that works for the youth at risk community.” She talked about planning a meeting next month to discuss the new facility.
Dana Kaplan, the Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana said that workforce development and placement are other vital juvenile justice programs to be considered in future city budgeting. She believes funds should be used in evidence-based, data-driven programming that has proven effective in other cities.
Council President Fielkow asked for the parties present to show the financial aspects and fiscal impacts of the alternative programs that need more funding. He and Councilmember Guidry emphasized that having these figures would allow them to prepare for next year’s budget.
Also discussed was the Southeast Louisiana Criminal Justice Recovery Task Force, which U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and Chief Justice Kitty Kimball created post-Katrina, and Honorable Mitch Landrieu led as Lieutenant Governor. Having worked with the team, Councilmember Clarkson knows how significant their discussions on the Youth Study Center have been, and she requested for the group to convene again. Kathy English from Letten’s office has already started reaching out to important justice system members and organizations to set up a meeting in the near future. The task force’s original mission was to assist its constituent state and local members (including law enforcement offices, courts, corrections facilities, and public defenders) who identified problems, obstacles and difficulties, crafted solutions, and obtained funding for the purpose of re-establishing full criminal justice services for the people of the region.
Councilmember Clarkson wrapped up the meeting by thanking the judges, Holt, Kaplan, and Ralph Brant of the District Attorney’s office for presenting.
