GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Brown County supervisors are asking state lawmakers to invest in the county’s criminal justice system.
The department has struggled with its workload for years, and supervisors say a lack of help from the state is largely to blame.
“This is their responsibility,” Board Supervisor Randy Schultz said. “Any time a judge in Brown County appoints a public defender because we couldn’t get one otherwise, the local taxpayers get socked with that bill.”
Schultz is also a retired law enforcement officer. He said the problem is one that has spanned the entire state for decades.
“I was hired locally in 1983, and it was already a problem then — a shortage of assistant district attorneys and public defenders,” Schultz said. “So, it’s high time.”
According to county board supervisor Keith Deneys, the shortages have caused the system’s efficiency to suffer. The county is currently experiencing a backlog of over 4,000 unresolved cases.
“Things moving slowly through the system is bad for victims, and it’s actually bad for the people that have been charged. And it’s bad for taxpayers because people are sitting and waiting, and it’s extra cost.”
A resolution passed at Wednesday’s county board meeting asks for increased financial support in a number of ways.
“We can move on and hopefully catch up — not get ahead. We’d just be happy to catch up before we run into constitutional issues,” Schultz said.
The resolution includes provisions like increasing starting pay for prosecutors and public defenders to $35/hour. It also asks for a pay increase of nearly $8/hour for anyone currently in those positions.
But there’s one issue central to the resolution.
“The big point for Brown county — which is the reimbursement of the $250,000 that we were forced to pay for court appointed attorneys because the state public defender’s office just wasn’t able to cover it,” Deneys said.
The county is also asking to start a study to examine what is causing the criminal justice system to move so slowly in the county.
“Use Brown County as a test subject to see if they can make some changes to get things better for the community and actually cease things moving faster,” Deneys said.
There are currently 17 positions within the District Attorney’s office. The county is requesting that number be increased to 25 to 28.
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