Judge: Juvenile Justice System In Crisis
Only half the teenagers arrested in Spokane for serious crimes are being prosecuted, presenting a serious community problem, says new federal Judge Robert Whaley.
A 3,000-case backlog exists because there are too few prosecutors and public defenders and an overcrowded juvenile detention center, Whaley said.
“Our children are learning that crime isn’t punished; it’s in crisis” in this community, Whaley said.
Whaley referred to a 15-year-old suspect, Kenneth Comeslast, arrested in this week’s assault-rifle killings of two teenage girls. The youth has three criminal charges tied up in the Juvenile Court backlog.
Saying he feels impassioned by the issue, his blunt comments Friday came in a crowded federal courtroom where he was sworn in as the newest U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Washington.
The former state court judge spent the last seven months handling juvenile cases.
“The system is in crisis,” Whaley said of the juvenile court backlog.
Most of his former fellow Superior Court judges were in the courtroom for his swearing-in ceremony.
Of 200 juvenile arrests each month, only about 90 make their way to juvenile court. Whaley said judges who send teens to jail usually must let someone else out early from the overcrowded 45-bed juvenile detention facility.
“You are my heroes,” Whaley said to his former colleagues.
State court judges each handle 600 criminal cases a year, while federal judges each are assigned about 110.
Because of their heavy workload and lack of support staff, Superior Court judges “make mistakes” and find themselves involved in “a conveyor-belt justice system.”
“Over the long period, the public’s confidence in the justice system will decrease,” he said, and if that happens, “our democracy could be in great peril.”
Whaley urged the public to “demand better funding” for state courts, prosecutors and public defenders.
Counties must pay for half the cost of Superior Court judges. Whaley said there may be a need for the state to take over full funding of its courts.
Whaley, 53, has been a Superior Court judge since 1992 and was nominated in January for the federal judgeship by Sen. Slade Gorton, a Republican, and Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat. He was confirmed by the Senate on June 30.
Whaley succeeds Senior U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush, who said Whaley has outstanding qualifications for the federal bench.
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