01272001 - News Article - Judge addresses backlog problem - Preliminary plan to clean up courtroom given to Supreme Court

Also See:

09242017 - News Article Links - Disparity of justice: Comparison of Magistrate James Johnson's and Judge Joan Kouros' judicial investigations - Backlog of court cases

Judge addresses backlog problem
Preliminary plan to clean up courtroom given to Supreme Court
NWI Times
January 27, 2001
http://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/judge-addresses-backlog-problem/article_db1a5c5a-4ad0-5f00-901c-b22ae26531a9.html
CROWN POINT -- In an attempt to get a handle on the critical backlog situation plaguing Lake Criminal Court Judge Joan Kouros, the court's senior judge has forwarded a plan of action to the Indiana Supreme Court in which he acknowledged a serious problem.

Judge Richard Maroc, senior judge of the criminal division, said Kouros has by his count checked out 330 files that she has not returned to the criminal court clerk's office. A judge will normally check out just the number of files he or she plans to hear that day -- as few as four or five, maybe as many as 45 -- and return them the same day or the next day.

A reporter's check with the criminal clerk's office showed 357 files out to Kouros, which the judge said Thursday is "not true, although I do have more out than other judges."

Maroc said he has done a random spot check on the files Kouros has checked out, and "there appears to be a significant lag in the entries of the current order in several."

What this means is that a number of people have been kept in the Lake County Jail for longer than they were supposed to be.

Maroc promised the Supreme Court the situation will be studied further, and a plan to attack the large-scale backlog will be submitted to the high court on or before Feb. 5.

The judges have met with Kouros and addressed the problem, which they say stems from Kouros' perfectionism.

"The perfect is getting in the way of the good," Maroc said.

Kouros admits she is driven, often working nights and weekends to clean up a file and checking and rechecking her own work and the work of others. But while the other judges praise the work ethic, they say she must stop the micromanagement.

Most of the people affected are inmates awaiting transfer to the Indiana Department of Correction, but there are some who have been kept in jail while awaiting transfer to mental health facilities or even release.

On Monday, the Indiana Supreme Court recognized the problem and issued an order to Maroc to start an accounting of Kouros' backlog, beginning with a list of 39 inmates prepared by the office of the warden at the jail.

The Supreme Court gave Maroc 48 hours to deal with the problem. By Wednesday, Maroc had prepared a response for the court. Of the 39 inmates, Maroc said, 13 were not dealt with inside the 48-hour deadline, but he and Kouros were still working to complete their orders. The remaining 26 are accounted for.

Kouros on Thursday denied any inmate has stayed in the jail when he should have been freed, a claim disputed by several defense attorneys.

She also said that, although she is backlogged, there is little difference between keeping a prisoner in Lake County Jail and in the Department of Correction.

"It's not like these people are supposed to be walking the street, and they're in jail," she said.

There is one prisoner, she said, who on paper should have been dismissed but is actually being held on a federal detainer.

Some of the difference boils down to money. If a federal prisoner is kept in the county jail, the government reimburses the county for caring for its prisoner. But if the transfer order was never issued, the prisoner technically still belongs to the county, and the county pays the bills. The same holds true with prisoners who have been transferred on paper to the Department of Correction, but who remain in county jail.

Without the transfer orders, the jail continues to pay and also exposes itself to potential liability. Jail guards have privately said they fear a lawsuit against the county if an inmate who should have been transferred injures another inmate or is injured by another inmate.

The fear is not unrealistic. Earlier this month, inmate Mareese Boyd, who is on the list of 39, was charged with beating fellow inmate Eugene Britt, who is awaiting trial on six counts of murder.

Although Maroc's investigation found "Boyd appears to be properly in Lake County Jail," he was recently transferred here from the Department of Mental Health after being declared competent to stand trial.

01262001 - News Article - Indiana high court takes on local judge - Backlog in inmate transfers cited as problem stemming from Judge Kouros' courtroom

Also See:

09242017 - News Article Links - Disparity of justice: Comparison of Magistrate James Johnson's and Judge Joan Kouros' judicial investigations - Backlog of court cases

Indiana high court takes on local judge
Backlog in inmate transfers cited as problem stemming from Judge Kouros' courtroom
NWI Times
Jan 26, 2001
http://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/indiana-high-court-takes-on-local-judge/article_4b016683-d06b-5acd-924b-9377be7b6d2a.html
CROWN POINT -- Like a parent who has to break up a battle among angry siblings, the Indiana Supreme Court has stepped into an internal donnybrook among Lake County's criminal court judges, the Sheriff's Department and inmates at the county jail.

In a strongly worded order, Chief Justice Randall Shepard told the senior judge of the Lake Criminal Court he has to clean up the mess in the courtroom of Judge Joan Kouros, and he has to do it immediately, citing 39 Lake County Jail prisoners who should have been sent to the Indiana Department of Correction or, in one case, released after his case was dismissed.

"This circumstance is symptomatic of a long-term problem," Shepard wrote in the opinion, issued Monday in Indianapolis.

The chief justice ordered Criminal Court Judge Richard Maroc, the division's senior judge, to develop a plan to cure the problem or be prepared to have the Supreme Court step in with personnel from downstate.

Maroc said Thursday "an order from the Supreme Court is sufficient to focus the attention on the absolute need" for action, and he sent a response to Indianapolis within 48 hours of the Supreme Court order.

The judges long have known that a problem exists in Kouros' courtroom, where orders often go unsigned for months and where the case files themselves disappear in a sea of green folders that stand stacked in Kouros' chambers, her bailiffs' room and inside the courtroom.

On Jan. 12, the Lake County Sheriff's Corrections Merit Board, which represents the county's jail guards, stopped playing nice and took on the judges, saying that Kouros' inaction was leading to more overcrowding in the county jail and a dangerous situation for their employees and inmates.

In a letter hand-delivered to Maroc, merit board President J. Justin Murphy told the judge 39 inmates then in the jail should have been transferred to the Indiana prison system or released.

Murphy noted the board informally approached Maroc in October and asked that the problem be dealt with.

"We recognized there was a problem," Murphy said Thursday, "and we met with the judge, who promised us he and his fellow judges would cure the problem."

Instead, Murphy said, the number of inmates awaiting transfers continued to grow, "and we wrote the formal letter."

Kouros said she was angered by Murphy's letter and said the list of the 39 inmates contains numerous errors that could have been addressed had Murphy "had the decency to call me before sending that letter."

The judge admitted there are a number of inmates who should have been transferred to the Department of Correction, but she said, "There is no one in jail who should not be behind bars. Maybe they're in the Lake County Jail instead of the Department of Correction, but it's not like they're supposed to be out walking around."

But Maroc disagreed and said there are significant problems with keeping inmates in the county jail after they should have been transferred to the prison system, among them the cost to taxpayers and the ability of inmates to earn degrees while in the prison system.

The one inmate shown on Murphy's list, which was cited by the Supreme Court, who shows his case dismissed is Keyron O'Neal, against whom state charges were dropped on June 13. O'Neal remains in jail in Lake County. Kouros said he is being held on a federal detainer and should not have been released.

However, she did say some of the cases ended up getting lost. Nonetheless, she said, of the 39, 37 have been cleared up and transfer orders signed, and she expects the other two to be cleared up today.

Others, including some defense lawyers, say they have had clients stay in jail for days or even weeks after a finding of innocent or a dismissal of a charge while awaiting a signature from Kouros.

"That's not true," said the judge. "It's not possible for a person to be in there that long without having written to me or called me."

But the letter from Murphy said jail guards are bombarded on a daily basis with the complaints.

"Our correctional officers receive complaints from the individuals on the enclosed list on nearly a daily basis as to why they have not been transferred to the DOC and/or released. Our officers' response that documentation has not yet been forwarded by the court only creates frustration and hostility, raising the risk of potential harm to our correctional officers and other inmates."

In addition, ex-inmate Vernon Dallas, 21, a convicted child molester, has sued Kouros for not sending him to prison. He contends she has procrastinated for more than a year after his case file was checked out on Sept. 8, 1999, and never returned. The suit is pending in U.S. District Court in Hammond.