As part of the criminal justice reporting partnership between 89.9 WWNO and WYES-TV, Marcia Kavanaugh tells us about changes that are on the horizon for the New Orleans Juvenile Court.
It is presently located at the corner of Poydras and Loyola Avenues, in the same building as Orleans Parish Civil District Court. It is identified by a door simple stating “Juvenile Court.”
But things are about to change — not only the court’s address, but also the number of judges that occupy the juvenile court bench.
The Orleans court is one of four juvenile courts in the state. Presently there are six judges to handle matters — anything from shoplifting to murder — that come before the court.
“But in addition to that we also deal with child in need of care proceedings — that’s the children who’ve been abused, abandoned, neglected, by their parents. The children who are taken away from their parents, a relative or a caretaker by a child protection agency,” says Judge Mark Doherty.
“We handle all that, and then we’re also the jurisdiction to handle private and agency adoptions, and intra-family adoptions when a grandparent or an aunt has had the child and there’s been a death in the family of a parent or some other reason why they can’t care for the child and that family adopts, the grandparent adopts that child. So we do delinquency. We do child in need of care cases and adoptions generally.”
The court’s caseload has fallen steadily for years, in part due to the shift of child support cases to Civil District Court in the 1990s. The post-Katrina years have seen the docket shrink even more. But Judge Doherty says it appears to be leveling out now.
“You know, things are always cyclical,” he says. “We have both what appear to be delinquency, a crime wave, and then things seem to quiet down, cases begin to run low at some point and then they build up. Things seem to take on a life of their own. The court simply has to operate and deal with the cases as they come in. There’s really no other choice. “
But the number of judges — six, handling caseloads averaging just half those of the other juvenile courts in the state — galvanized a movement to reduce the number of judges at Orleans Juvenile Court.
In the spring session of the Louisiana Legislature that effort was successful. A measure shrinking the number of judges to four was passed and signed into law.
However, eliminating a judgeship cannot happen unless a judge leaves, or is removed, from the position. Which is the case when, at the end of this year, Judge Lawrence Lagarde retires. So, come January 1, 2015, the court will have five judges on the bench.
“Well, we hope that it will not impact the court negatively in terms of handling the public’s business,” says judge Doherty. “It will mean dividing up the cases that are presently allotted to Judge Lagarde in Section D and distributing those cases to the other judges, and requiring in order to meet legal timelines under federal laws in the child of need of care cases as well as state rules, that we step up to the plate and make sure that all the rules are complied with and hear the public’s business.”
Supporters say cutting back on judgeships will save money. According to the Bureau of Governmental Research, in their 2013 report “Benchmarking the Bench,” the cost per judge, including each’s staff, comes close to $500,000 annually.
So, where will that money go?
“The law that reduced the number of judgeships for juvenile court states specifically that all savings to the city must be put into juvenile services. So that the money can’t be used to balance the budget or provide for any non-juvenile related services,” says Doherty. “So, even if there was an effort to do that, the law is pretty clear.”
“I think I don’t want people to think of that as savings. That is an investment,” says Joshua Perry, who heads the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. “Any money that we can invest in the future of our children, that can reap as a peace dividend from smaller justice systems should be reinvested in the positive development of our children.”
Perry’s organization serves as public defender for kids who come before the court. Perry can recite a laundry list of needed services.
“We don’t have the mental health systems that our children deserve, and that needs an investment,” Perry says. “We don’t have the vocational training opportunities that our children deserve so that every one of them can have real economic opportunity. That’s a place for investment. We don’t have the multiple pathways to an excellent education that we need to have to make sure that every child is educated in a way that they deserve, and that would be a great place for investment. We don’t have the mentoring opportunities for kids in the city that I think all of us wish we had.
“So, ya know, there area a plethora of really good opportunities that we have here to make a real difference in the lives of New Orleans’ children,” he continued. “And I really trust that the city is dedicated to doing that with this money that gets reinvested.”
Judge Doherty agrees.
“So in order to provide services, keep kids at home, in their own home; going to the school they were going to before and yet getting the support services they need; the counseling, the after school help, tutoring; individual as well as family counseling to try and resolve the underlying problems — all of those are services that we are still greatly deficient in,” he says. “Funding that we have that may be saved through the elimination of judgeships should be directed in those areas, and hopefully if we can do that, that provides help to kids and their families on a one to one basis and we’d be able to make some progress.”
And the other adjustment the court faces: moving to a new facility in Gentilly, one that will have more space than the crowded downtown location, and where support services can also be housed.
It has just four courtrooms. Not to worry, says Judge Doherty. Some judges can double up.
“It’ll simply require… a couple of judges to double up and share the use of a courtroom either in juggling docket schedules,” he says. “It’s just a logistical issue. It can be solved.”
In this election cycle, four of the juvenile judges, including Doherty, were reelected without opposition.
Incumbent judge Yolanda King drew several opponents as she sits out her paid suspension from the bench. King allegedly lied about her residence when qualifying to run for the office last year.
Support for criminal justice reporting for WWNO and WYES comes from Baptist Community Ministries.