The administration of justice is a dynamic process; as the needs of the citizenry change so must our courts. The Commission for the Future of Justice and the Courts in North Carolina, appointed by former Chief Justice Exum in 1994, has made a thorough study of the North Carolina judicial system. It has recommended a comprehensive list of reforms that will help our court system meet present and especially future demands. It has been thirty years since the present court system was established following the work of the Bell Commission; this current review is timely and necessary. The Governor's Crime Commission is considering each of the Court Futures Commission recommendations very carefully and believes this is a good road map for needed improvements.
There is an urgency to promote needed improvements, listed below, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the court system. No longer can traditional solutions, such as additional judges or more resources, serve as effective long-term answers. Accordingly, the Governor's Crime Commission recommends the following reforms and enhancements in the state's judicial system:
On December 13, 1996 the Governor's Crime Commission approved the following resolution in reference to the work of the Commission for the Future of Justice and the Courts in North Carolina, and its report titled, Without Favor, Denial or Delay: A court System for the 21st Century:
The Governor's Crime Commission commends the Commission for the Future of Justice and the Courts in North Carolina for the thorough and comprehensive nature of its work, the Crime Commission further supports the proposals which would make the courts more efficient and more responsible, and the Crime Commission also recommends that the North Carolina General Assembly proceed with consideration of the Futures Commission report to the end that those proposals which will best prepare our judicial system for the next century be adopted.
The current system of selecting magistrates is problematic. The Magistrates are accountable to several individuals within the court system and therefore cannot get a clear picture of whom they serve. The Governor's Crime Commission encourages the General Assembly to create a forum for all interested parties to participate in the review of the current process of appointment, training, supervision, and retention of magistrates, and make the necessary legislative changes so that they will be more accountable to the public.
There is an outstanding need for more pre-sentence investigations (PSIs). Several states require PSIs before most sentencing decisions. Judges like to have this kind of information before they sentence people, especially if they are going to place the person back into the community. The expansion of community correction programs is further increasing the need for PSIs. The Sentencing Commission has also suggested putting more resources into this PSIs.
PSIs give judges more information about the people they are about to sentence. With the passage of the constitutional amendment on alternative sanctions, judges now have the legal authority to impose a much wider range of sentencing options. PSIs allow judges to make better, more informed decisions in the use of correctional resources.
The Governor's Crime Commission endorses the Criminal Justice Information Network (CJIN) study committee's recommendation for a statewide magistrate information system. This recommendation endorses the AOC's expansion budget request to establish an automated system in those counties that are not already automated, and to establish links between the AOC's Court Information System (CIS), these local systems, and the SBI's Division of Criminal Information.
North Carolina lacks an integrated statewide magistrate information system. Currently, only six counties have either completed or initiated the establishment of magistrate information systems. Staff in the remaining counties either handwrite or type processes such as arrest warrants and orders for release. This is an inefficient and costly method and consequently produces duplication of work and wasted resources. Most detrimentally, it contributes to inaccurate, incomplete, and outdated criminal history records.
The magistrate's office is a hub for the local criminal justice community. Local law enforcement officers, district attorneys, judges, and probation/parole officers are dependent upon this office and the criminal history data it possesses These employees need accurate, complete, and current data to make vital decisions about the appropriate disposition of criminal cases. The current method of collecting and maintaining magistrates' data creates undue delay and hinders effective decision-making at both the local and state level. Data entry clerks often take days to manually enter a newly issued arrest warrant or a temporary restraining order into the Administrative Office of the Courts' Criminal Information System (CIS). The time lag has produced situations such as the following.
The statewide automated magistrate system will alleviate those problems listed above by providing law enforcement officials, court personnel, and probation/parole officers with accurate, complete, and up-to-date process information. Once the system is implemented, each county's magistrate's office will be able to transmit and receive warrant and disposition information with the AOC's Court Information System on a timely basis. Electronic interfaces between these systems and DCI will allow the magistrate to enter information directly into the system and immediately send it to both the court and law enforcement information systems. Consequently, all criminal justice professionals will have immediate access to their own county's specific data plus data from every other county and state agency.
The Commission recommends funding the start up activities associated with this component of CJIN. This involves software development and database construction.
North Carolina's courts are manual operations. Trial transcripts and other proceedings are recorded in handwritten form; this information is eventually entered into the AOC's Court Information System. Although some clerks can enter data on a daily basis, backlogs of up to two to four weeks are common in many clerks' offices. This manual system and the delays in data entry make it difficult or impossible to obtain timely information about court proceedings, dispositions, and other relevant court information. The lack of access to this court data hinders effective decision making and increases the probability of serious problems because of mismanaging defendants.
Courtroom automation will facilitate real time data entry and alleviate many problems created by information not being readily available to all criminal justice agencies. Officials will be able to make more informed decisions as a result of having accurate, complete, and up-to-date information.
There is a need to expand this project to judicial districts that have difficulty clearing cases and properly sentencing violent offenders. This project was established in 1993 to target violent and repeat offenders of Wake County. The task force achieves its goal by quickly identifying and successfully expediting the prosecution of the dangerous career criminals, resulting in more timely and appropriate sentences. The task force takes the step of screening cases one step further by having task force investigators ascertain everything about the case when possible by interviewing arresting officers, victims, and witnesses prior to making the final determination of a defendant's qualification for the project. Prosecutors in the task force have handled a variety of cases; however, the most common cases are robberies, assaults, rapes and sex offenses, kidnappings, burglaries, murders, and other miscellaneous crimes.
The practice of plea bargaining is a rare option with the task force cases; defendants may either plead guilty as charged or go to trial. This system has resulted in stiffer sentences for these offenders. The success of the task force is apparent when comparing the task force statistics with those of non-task force cases in Wake County. Last year the average felony case took 150 days to reach disposition. However, the task force successfully disposed of assigned felony cases in an average of fifty-five days. In addition, due to the increase in court time, 22 percent of task force cases last year resulted in jury trials where a guilty verdict was returned, while only 2 percent of those cases which non-task force prosecutors handled resulted in jury trials where a guilty verdict was returned.
This is a successful project that would increase the efficiency of many court systems across the state and benefit the citizens of North Carolina by assuring that the career and violent criminals are receiving the swift and severe sentences.