NYCLA Report Finds that Budget Cuts Followed by Sequestration Have Reduced Access to Justice, Decreased Public Safety, and Jeopardized the Rule of Law
NYCLA Calls on Congress to Restore Funding for Courts
New York, NY – September 4, 2013 – The New York County Lawyers' Association (NYCLA) today released its Report on the Continuing Effect of Judicial Budget Cuts on the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. The report is the result of an extensive investigation conducted by NYCLA's Task Force on Judicial Budget Cuts, which conducted an initial investigation into the results of judicial budget cuts in 2011. Since then, thanks to sequestration, the budget for the federal courts has been cut even further, and the situation has become increasingly perilous. Through interviews with judges and court personnel and a thorough canvassing of reports and other resources, the Task Force concluded that our federal courts are now on the brink of crisis.
"Our courts are now approaching a constitutional crisis. Funding to the Southern and Eastern Districts and other federal courts was reduced by nearly 7.6 percent in 2011 and then another 10 percent this year, as a result of sequestration," said former NYCLA President Michael Miller, Co-Chair of NYCLA's Task Force on Judicial Budget Cuts. "Our federal courts have now faced years of unrelenting budgetary pressure, which has corroded the efficient administration of justice, undercut their ability to maintain public safety in the courthouse, and deprived them of the resources needed to supervise the hundreds of thousands of federal detainees who are released pretrial or post-trial."
The report highlights both the extent of the cuts and their draconian effects, including:
- Public safety in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and Eastern District of New York (EDNY) has been compromised due to staff reductions in the Probation Department and Pretrial Services Office. Fewer officers are responsible for more cases, have less time to spend on presentence reports, and are unable to monitor criminal offenders and defendants as closely as in the past.
- Security at courthouses in the Southern and Eastern Districts has also suffered. Court security officers are being required to work reduced hours, creating security vulnerabilities throughout the system. Together with the elimination of security systems and equipment, this deficit creates a substantial risk to the safety and security of judges, employees, jurors, and litigants. Nor is this a hypothetical risk. The SDNY and EDNY face security and terrorism concerns that are unique among federal district courts. Thus far in 2013, there have been 42 threats made to EDNY judges and court officials, including a plot to assassinate a United States District Judge.Due to the loss of manpower in the Clerk's Office and elsewhere, the SDNY and EDNY may be forced to curtail their hours of operation, delay civil trials, and possibly even close for entire days at a time, while imposing unpaid furloughs upon courthouse staff. Meanwhile, both the SDNY and the EDNY have postponed replacing obsolete equipment and put off other technology upgrades and infrastructure repair. Although these measures save some costs in the short term, they will ultimately result in additional delays and more expensive repair efforts.
- Alternatives to incarceration, such as alcohol, drug and mental health treatment, have been cut dramatically, increasing the risk of recidivism. In the SDNY, substance abuse treatment services have been cut by 43 percent and mental health services by 7 percent.
- The Federal Defenders, critical to the defense of indigent criminal defendants, was especially hard hit by sequestration, resulting in staff furloughs, delays in criminal proceedings and the inability to accept all eligible cases. As a result, cases that could and should be handled efficiently by the Federal Defendants have been shifted to the Criminal Justice Act Panel, at a higher cost to taxpayers.
- Funding constraints have caused a staffing crisis at the SDNY's Bankruptcy Court, which is among the most active such courts in the country. The SDNY draws all types of bankruptcy filings from around the world, including well-recognized mega cases. Moreover, the same economic trends that are used to justify the budget cuts have resulted in substantial increases in bankruptcy filings, further exacerbating the problem.
"After conducting extensive research, NYCLA concluded that the indiscriminate budget cuts mandated by sequestration are depriving both the courts and the Federal Defenders of the resources they need to meet their constitutional obligations," said Barbara Moses, NYCLA President. "Our report, supported by the Chief Judges from New York's Southern and Eastern Districts, urges Congress to restore the federal judicial budget to levels that permit the courts to effectively and efficiently adjudicate the cases that come before them, and that allow the Federal Defenders to provide the representation that the Sixth Amendment demands."
"Each of us should care that the fragile, judicial branch of government remain separate and independent," said Hon. Stephen G. Crane, former Senior Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department and Co-Chair of NYCLA's Task Force on Judicial Budget Cuts. "The treatment of the federal judiciary as if it were but another executive branch office threatens that independence and betrays the sensitivity for the judiciary that the founders of our nation reposed in the other two branches of our tri-partite government."
NYCLA urges Congress, at a minimum, to enact what is now S. 1371, which would provide the judiciary with a $496 million increase in funding for FY 2014—roughly seven percent more than the post-sequestration funding received by the courts in FY 2013. As Michael Miller explained, "Adequate funding is required in order to preserve and protect our precious judicial system and give meaning to the terms 'due process of law' and 'equal protection.' Elected officials and the American people alike need to recognize the critical role of the federal judicial system and support funding appropriate for it to function effectively."
About the New York County Lawyers' Association
The New York County Lawyers' Association (www.nycla.org) was founded in 1908 as the first major bar association in the country that admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion or gender. Since its inception, it has pioneered some of the most far-reaching and tangible reforms in American jurisprudence and has continuously played an active role in legal developments and public policy.