Warning of delay, frustration and inconvenience, the state Judicial Branch on Friday revealed a budget reduction plan that would slash services while closing four courthouses, a jail for juveniles, six law libraries and numerous other court offices.
The criminal court for Geographical Area 13 would close in Enfield, along with Juvenile Courts in Danbury, Torrington and Rockville. Operations at courthouses elsewhere would be shifted, merged and reduced. Children at the juvenile detention center in New Haven, on the list for closure, would be held in Hartford and Bridgeport. Hundreds of employees would be laid off.
Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers warned that the budget cuts, if they become effective, would "dramatically change" the way courts do business and could threaten the state's obligation to provide swift and unfettered access to dispute resolution.
"The end result is that our ability to administer justice as required by the Constitution may very well be compromised," Rogers said.
Judicial Branch report on budget cuts: http://www.jud.ct.gov/external/news/BudgetPlan_071511.pdf
Statement by Chief Justice Chase t. Rogers: http://www.jud.ct.gov/external/news/Rogers_071511.pdf
The plan requires a staff reduction of 452 employees, including the clerks who cover about three quarters of the state's court and hearing rooms. When combined with the 150 unfilled positions the branch now carries, the layoffs mean a reduction of 602 employees and positions out of 3,856, exclusive of judges. The state's 180 judges are Constitutional officers and immune to lay off.
The reduction in Judicial Branch probation officers, when combined with prison closings anticipated by the state corrections department, could create a spike in newly released - and unsupervised - convicts, according to a Judicial Branch budget analysis.
The Legislature ordered across-the-government budget cuts in June after state employee unions voted against Gov. Dannel Malloy's demand for cost savings concessions.
The Branch budget for the current fiscal year is about $500 million. Nearly half of that is for court support services, a division that has grown explosively over the last decade and administers programs such as the supervision of 50,000 convicts on probation and those that provide criminals with alternatives to incarceration.
When ordering the further cuts last month, the Legislature specifically prohibited the Judicial Branch from taking a disproportionate amount of the money from court support services.
Judge Barbara Quinn, the state's Chief Court Administrator, told the Legislative leadership by letter Friday that the cuts "will have significant consequences."
"More than anything, the impending layoffs will severely compromise our ability to provide essential services to the residents of the State of Connecticut," she wrote.
In an interview, Quinn said significantly fewer personnel handling the same business means "it will take longer to process what we need to process and the make sure that the cases are heard. It's going to be like getting your business done at the DMV. It's going to take longer, with more effort and longer lines.",
Absent an 11th hour agreement between the governor and state employee unions, Thomas Siconolfi, the Branch's executive administrative officer, said the layoffs, closures and consolidations would begin in August and likely be compete by mid-October.
With reduced personnel, Quinn told legislative leaders that criminal cases will become the court system's first priority because of public safety concerns and the state's Constitutional obligations to criminal defendants and victims. As a result, people involved in civil litigation - from divorces to business disputes- would experience delay.
"If fact, every facet of civil litigation will be affected by delays in each step of the civil process," Quinn said.
One effect of the mass lay off of clerks would be early closing the court system's primary Judicial District clerk's offices.
A branch analysis of the reductions predicted longer drives by the public to court and to juvenile probation and support enforcement offices. People acting as their own lawyers would lose access to law libraries. Homeowners seeking to keep houses through the branch's foreclosure mediation program would have longer waits. Police officers would lose patrol time to time spent drive to and waiting in court.