From the Dallas Morning News:
By Kevin Krause
Dallas County criminal courts urged to generate more revenue
Dallas County commissioners are asking the county criminal court judges to generate more revenue from their courts or possibly lose funding for some key programs such as drug court and jail education, as well as and services for the homeless and mentally ill.
The county is facing a $34 million budget shortfall for the coming 2009 fiscal year. So far, commissioners have found enough cuts and additional revenue to offset 23 percent of that deficit.
The county criminal courts, which handle misdemeanor cases, are generating less revenue this fiscal year from fines and fees assessed to defendants.
And here all this time I thought the purpose of criminal courts was to help deter crime through the proper administration of justice.
4 comments:
I bet you thought speed limits and traffic laws were designed to make driving safer too didn't you.
Silly wabbit.
They are generating less revenue because the state leg has put more even more surcharges and mandatory fines on traffic convictions, so people have more reason to hire attorneys to get them out of it.
If they want to collect the fines, they should make the fines preferable to fighting.
how bout they stop letting the criminals they do prosecute out of jail... and then with a massive jail population they use those people to start a business... those people can learn a trade, and the system can make a profit... treat it just like a normal job, you screw around and get stupid, you get fired and the next job open to you is hard labor...
either that or just expand the reasons that you can impose the death sentence... start with say rape, armed assault, armed robbery, dealing in trafficking amounts of narcotics, child sex crimes, attempted murder, and theft in amounts over $5000... and make the sentence carried out within 90 days of imposition...
i bet the population of the jail system gets smaller much quicker...
Hey Chris, you are even more hard core than I.
Phelps, to my way of thinking the criminal justice system should not be about generating revenue, but about... well... criminal justice. Crimes that are just crimes so the state/county/city can generate revenue should not be crimes. Crimes worthy of punishment, are worthy of a punishment of a nature and scope that would deter folks from committing that crime.
Yeah Curt, V thinks I'm often silly also.
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