DA: Budget cuts may lead to fewer prosecutions

The Bernalillo County district attorney is pleading with lawmakers to spare prosecutors from deep budget cuts during next month’s likely special session

Criminal prosecutions in the state’s 13 judicial districts could be severely impacted if lawmakers decide to cut the budgets of the state’s district attorneys, according to the the DA in Bernalillo County.

“We’re in a crisis,” said District Attorney Kari Brandenburg. “We’re at the point were we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m an optimist.”

She told reporters last week that her office has been fortunate to get several crime-fighting grants, but those cannot be used to balance her office’s budget. Brandenburg hopes lawmakers are hearing the message that public safety is high on the list of voter’s priorities.

Her $17 million budget was cut last fiscal year by almost 2 percent. Last week, Brandenburg disclosed that she’s been asked to submit scenarios to the state outlining the impact of cuts ranging from 1-7 percent of the remaining budget.

During a news conference on Thursday, Brandenburg said her employees disproportionately felt last year’s cuts, because budgets of prosecutors are heavily weighted towards personnel services.

“Our people sacrifice everyday,” she said. “Like me, many pay for their own office supplies and training costs so that their peers are not furloughed to provide money for those expenses.”

Almost 95 percent of the agency’s budget goes to salaries and benefits for attorneys, paralegals, investigators and support staff. Four  percent — $745,000 — goes to operating expenses, and much of last year’s cuts came from those areas.

“The cuts we implemented last year were carried over into this year, so we are now facing some very ominous scenarios if large budget cuts are added to the mix,” Brandenburg noted.

Prosecutors struggling to keep up with case loads

Brandenburg cited a recent study by the American Prosecutors Resource Institute and provided by the state Administrative Office of the District Attorneys (AODA) that found, based on caseloads, the office would need 348 staffers to handle its full workload in fiscal year 2009. Currently, her office has 292 employees.

“In order to meet our need, based just on last year’s numbers, we would have to add 22 new attorneys, seven investigators, 11 victim advocates and 30 support staff,” Brandenburg said. “Some of these positions, such as victim advocates, provide services required by law. These positions cannot be cut if the office cannot provide those services.”

Asked whether she was advocating a freeze on police hirings to slow the number of case referrals, she responded,“We support every effort by law enforcement to bring every criminal to justice. But, their efforts are toothless without an assurance of prosecution and we are already struggling to keep up.”

However, Brandenburg did note that other prosecutor’s offices around the country, including Eugene, Ore. and Dallas, Texas, have already resorted to declining to prosecute certain cases because of a lack of funding.

“We are not there yet and, for me, choosing not to prosecute is not an option — but we have to realize that cuts in the criminal justice system mean delays in prosecutions, which can have domino effects in other segments of our lives,” Brandenburg said.

Recently, the district court in Albuquerque restricted the hours for filing paperwork, and for Brandenburg, that translates to more time required for staff to stand in line to file and retrieve documents.

Court staffers are bracing for one-day a week furloughs themselves. It could be the same scenario in Brandenburg’s office, she said.

Each 1 percent cut in the district attorney’s current budget could require 20 hours of furlough for each office employee, she said. A 3 percent cut would require employees to give up 60 hours of pay, and might limit the ability to bring in experts in cases involving drugs and child abuse. A 5 percent cut would mean more than 2.5 weeks of furlough for each employee and would totally eliminate the office’s operating funds.

Case delays are costly

Delays in trials mean delaying the collection of fees and fines from convicted criminals, requiring taxpayers to foot the bill for longer stays in local jails and requiring prosecutors to devote more time to preparing motions for extensions and delays when court dockets are full.

In fiscal year 2009, Brandenburg’s office estimates it saved more than $40,000 in tuition by providing its own in-house training for attorneys. Annual training is mandatory for every attorney and many support staff. The office also cut back on paper usage, though it still used more than 5.7 million sheets of paper — at a cost of almost $26,000.

“Because each case is unique, we can’t just copy the work we did on another defendant’s case. We have to recreate documents tailored to each defendant and each charge. It is nothing short of labor intensive,” Brandenburg said.

Focused on repeat offenders and drug-related violence

Brandenburg’s office has recently gone public encouraging the Albuquerque City Council to support a new collaborative effort between the city and the DA. It will focus on prosecuting repeat offenders. But, Brandenburg explained, the $275,000 allocated for that joint city-county initiative will not be used to replace funding for positions traditionally provided in legislative appropriations.

A similar Federal Recovery Act grantwas recently announced by U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall.

Through their efforts, almost $900,000 will soon arrive in the DA’s office to fund prosecutions of drug-related violence. In the grant application submitted by the office, these funds are targeted at hiring new staff to fill the gap between funded positions and needed ones.

The grant funds six positions for two years, and it does not replace previously unfunded vacancies.

Brandenburg expects to go to the Legislature for continuing funding, and said her comments are not meant to threaten lawmakers.

“Absolutely not — it is not like we are throwing a rock through the window with a threatening note attached,” she said. “It is more like a bouquet of flowers with a nicely worded card. We just want the public and our legislators to appreciate the impact these proposed cuts can have on public safety. None of us want to see criminals go free because we cannot afford to do everything in our power to bring them to justice.”