Prison overcrowding a more complex issue that meets the eye
[ad_1]
James E. Stewart Sr.
Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator has chosen a moment when everyone in the local criminal justice system is stretched thin to criticize others in an effort to deflect from his own failures.
“Sometimes the loudest person in the room is not the smartest person,” Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers recently said. “Sometimes the loudest person in the room is not the person who has all the facts on their side or the truth on their side. Sometimes there’s a lot of wisdom in silence. Sometimes there’s a lot of wisdom in being selective on what you say.”
Recently a 330-pound prisoner with a history of issues at Caddo Correctional Center hit one of the sheriff’s 125-pound female deputies during a prisoner extraction from a cell, breaking her jaw. This failure of protocol and possible breach of the duty to protect an employee from a clear and present danger has been turned into a launch point for comparisons with prison violence, overcrowding, and wait time.
In the past, we in the criminal justice system have dealt with any issues through communication and joint efforts by the judges, the district attorney, the public defender head, and parish and municipal law enforcement leaders. We worked the issues together, and did not resort to grandstanding and misleading statistics.
The attacks on the District Attorney’s Office by this sheriff are nothing new. My predecessors Paul Carmouche and the late Charles Rex Scott were attacked by this same sheriff for various random issues and delays in trials, at times when the homicide rate was half of today’s tally. Some murder cases in 2007, 15 years ago, took several years to prosecute, not because of a slothful Mr. Carmouche or Mr. Scott, or lazy judges, but to ensure fair trials and the Constitutionality of the legal process. Another example of the rising crisis of violent crimes we deal with now is that in 2015 we had one attempted homicide case involving a juvenile; In 2020-2021 , there were 17 such cases of attempted homicide or homicide involving juveniles. Where appropriate, many of those cases have been transferred from Juvenile Court to District Court where defendants face longer prison sentences.
As a local judge told me when discussing the sheriff’s criticism, “This is not (the television show) ‘Law and Order.’ We have to constantly communicate that to jurors. Trials are not commenced and finished in one hour.” Judges, assistant district attorneys, public defenders and other court personnel work hard every day in the overburdened criminal system. The exasperated judge noted that the sheriff’s office asked for a hiatus in inmate transport for several weeks so that CCC could get over a COVID rash. This caused major delays in the criminal justice system he now criticizes and in which claims COVID plays no part.
Defendants rarely if ever come to court and plead guilty as charged on their first appearance. In almost every felony case, there is a preliminary examination and numerous motions filed and heard before a trial even commences. Some of the most violent cases involve sanity issues, which Constitutionally brings the case to a halt until a sanity commission of psychiatrists is empaneled, all members individually visit with the defendant, and the commission renders a written decision. This process can take many months. It sometimes takes a year or more to impanel the psychiatrists to come to their conclusion.
More:Caddo Sheriff says trial delays are causing overcrowding, leading to Parish prison violence
Every case has its own issues, such as judge recusals, housing of juveniles to be prosecuted in adult court, delays in crime lab results, getting all necessary reports from law enforcement, locating witnesses and police officers on vacation days or assignment, or finding police officers who have left the state.
Most of the cases cited by the sheriff have had numerous changes of defense attorneys, another huge issue in our state’s strained criminal justice system. Any time a new defense lawyer is brought in, the case comes to a halt while that attorney catches up. Some of the cases cited by the sheriff to the media have had six or seven defense attorney changes. But in half the cases he disingenuously cites, the defendants have already been tried and convicted and are serving their time in Caddo Correctional Center.
I reached out to former Caddo Parish District Attorney Paul Carmouche to opine on the issue. “The problem is everybody wants everybody in jail with high bonds, then when the jail is full there’s nowhere else to go,” he said, “If the sheriff wants speedy trials, we have to get more judges, more court space, more prosecutors, more public defenders, and it all costs money.”
All in-person Caddo Parish court proceedings were suspended due to COVID emergency stay orders from either the Louisiana Supreme Court or our local judges beginning on March 16, 2020 through May 18, 2020. The Caddo Courthouse was closed for six days due to unprecedented inclement weather in January and February 2021, causing further delays. Moreover the Caddo judges have currently suspended jury trials from January 10, 2022 until March 2022.
Additionally, succeeding waves of COVID cases caused by variations of the virus, including the Delta and Omicron varieties, also have led to strictures, postponements, and orders that have affected proceedings, especially jury trials. Specifically in Caddo Parish, in the past two years since the start of the pandemic, 42 jury sessions were lost due to emergency orders from the judges, which shut down the courts. The loss of jury sessions by court order resulted in 210 unused days of court. Additional other COVID-caused delays have been caused by defendants, witnesses, jurors, lawyers and judges contracting COVID, as well as limitations on transportation of inmates due to COVID issues. Caddo is not alone because these COVID related delays have similarly affected other large Parishes such as East Baton Rouge, Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany, and most if not all of the 42 Louisiana judicial districts.
Jefferson Parish, with 429,711 residents, 16 criminal court judges and 82 assistant district attorneys, completed 9 criminal jury trials in 2020 and 20 in 2021. Orleans Parish, with a population of 388,424 has 14 criminal court judges and 83 assistant district attorneys, and had 14 criminal jury trials in 2020 and zero in 2021. East Baton Rouge Parish, population 436,061, has nine criminal court judges and 48 assistant district attorneys, and conducted 14 criminal jury trials in 2020.
And Caddo Parish? With a population of 237,848, we have five criminal court judges, and 21 adult criminal court assistant district attorneys. However, our Parish had 24 criminal court jury trials in 2021 and 29 in 2020, which for both years was more than any other parish in Louisiana.
Aside from judges whose numbers have not increased in decades, the only thing preventing us from holding criminal jury trials now is a moratorium our judges have put in place until March 1, as a precaution against the newest variant of the COVID-19 virus. When the moratorium ends, your Caddo Parish District Attorney office remains ready to go.
More:Assault at Caddo Correctional highlights problems with trial system backlog, sheriff says
Research from the National Institute of Health, the federal government, prison reform organizations, and any other modern academic research of crime, all establish that it is the chance of being caught rather than the degree of punishment that scares offenders from criminal activity. The sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in Caddo Parish, and 80 percent of Caddo Parish’s population is in Shreveport, but he chooses to not investigate crimes of violence nor actively patrol to prevent crime where 80 percent of Caddo Parish citizens reside.
Last year, the sheriff criticized the judges, the district attorney, the Governor, the Legislature, the Caddo Parish Commission, the Shreveport City Council, colleges, universities, and the school board, in a manifesto he, of course, circulates to the media. This is not service to the people of Caddo but a continuous prideful tantrum which is counter productive to solving the criminal crisis in our community. Our responsibility is to the citizens of Caddo Parish as required by the Constitution and the laws of Louisiana, not the sheriff. During these trying times, we will continue to work with those who can set their egos aside and work for the good of people. The judges’ stay has temporarily stopped jury trials but has not stopped this office from working hard every day to move cases and serve justice.
James E. Stewart Sr. is the Caddo Parish District Attorney.
[ad_2]
Source link
