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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.
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