March 24, 2010 in City

Deadlines bedevil Spokane County prosecutor’s office

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Efforts to reduce Spokane County’s jail needs through swift justice have hit a “significant roadblock” in the prosecutor’s office, commissioners were told Tuesday.

Once again, jail consultant David Bennett told commissioners, the prosecutor’s office is regularly failing to file formal charges within 72 hours.

Suspects who are not charged within 72 hours of their arrest must be released without conditions.

“They’re not sitting in your jail, but worse, they’re out in the community without any supervision and continuing with the activities that brought them into the system in the first place,” Bennett said.

Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said that the prosecution bottleneck threatens the good news Bennett presented Tuesday: About 250 fewer new jail cells may be needed by 2035 than previously estimated.

That could shave $20 million to $26 million off construction costs estimated at $229 million to $265 million, Knezovich said.

The savings in operating costs over the life of the jail would be about 10 times the construction savings, Bennett told commissioners.

Knezovich said prompt charging is necessary to reduce the need for more jail cells. Offenders can be routed quickly into drug court or other supervised programs designed to keep them out of jail and out of trouble.

Bennett said a new “early case resolution” process had lifted the timely filing of charges from “a very low percentage” to as high as 70 percent.

Then, in November, as commissioners began slashing expenditures to balance this year’s budget, the prosecutor’s office “reverted back to not filing felony cases routinely within 72 hours,” Bennett said.

In a recent example, Spokane police arrested convicted child molester Charles D. Baker, 50, on suspicion of residential burglary Feb. 7 at 1712 E. Queen Ave.

Baker had an arrest warrant from the Department of Corrections for escape from community custody, according to court documents. Still, Baker walked out of jail the next day because the prosecutor’s office hadn’t delivered preliminary paperwork for his bail hearing.

When prosecutors filed a residential burglary charge Feb. 17, Crime Stoppers issued a reward for tips.

A news release called him a “heavy hitter” and an “armed career criminal” with a rap sheet that includes failure to register as a sex offender, malicious mischief, possession of stolen property and burglary. He was convicted of first-degree child molestation in 1991 in Stevens County.

Baker was re-arrested Feb. 23.

Knezovich said that deputies arrest some suspects up to nine times before they get to court.

“Without the prosecutor’s involvement, early case resolution doesn’t work,” Knezovich said.

Chief Criminal Prosecutor Jack Driscoll said getting police to present criminal referrals to the prosecutor’s office was “really the key” to the early case resolution program.

“There were problems across the criminal justice system before we revamped the system,” Knezovich said.

Bennett said Prosecutor Steve Tucker agreed Monday to have “a professional prosecutor come in and do a quick evaluation of that office.”

Tucker wasn’t available for comment Tuesday afternoon, but Driscoll said that the prosecutor’s office “had to pick from a list of horribles” when a $1 million budget cut eliminated seven attorneys and five support workers.

The office had more than 70 attorneys assigned to criminal prosecutions at its “apex,” but now only has about 50, Driscoll said.

Knezovich said the prosecutor’s problems are “no more than any of us have budget problems.” He said he is reorganizing his office to restore programs that were slammed by budget reductions.

“It comes down truly to the prioritization of what you’re doing,” Knezovich said.

Driscoll said the early case resolution program was “very successful,” allowing attorneys to handle three times the usual number of cases.

“We had finally gotten to the position where we were doing business as it came through the door,” Driscoll said. “But you have to decide if you’re going to do crimes where you have victims – people crimes – or crimes like drug possession where you don’t have any victims.”

He said drug and property crimes were the “backbone” of the early case resolution program, which quickly routed offenders into drug court of other forms of supervision.

Relinquishing those gains “is very frustrating to me,” Driscoll said.

“That’s how we had been doing business for many years,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re going back to the same model.”

But not if Bennett can help it.

“One way or another, somehow, we have to get back in front of this problem,” Bennett told commissioners. “This is just not acceptable.”

Staff writer Meghann M. Cuniff contributed to this story.

13 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  Scoutster on March 24 at 12:16 a.m.

  The story says: Bennett said Prosecutor Steve Tucker agreed Monday to have “a professional prosecutor come in and do a quick evaluation of that office.”

  Won’t it be great to have a professional prosecutor come in and take a look!? When was the last time that office had THAT!?

  Maybe it is time for us to look at technology and costs and effectiveness and re-evaluate this whole obsession we have with incarceration in this country.

  When a little ol’ place like Spokane is considering spending $200 million+ on jail space, before even lodging a single inmate, it’s time to rethink the problem.

• 

  Not_woriking on March 24 at 12:50 a.m.

  Scoutster touches the surface of the problem.

  This is NOT rocket science and prosecutors have been prosecuting for decades. Its way past time that someone who knows what they are doing to be put in charge. Template documents created for the most common RCW’s. The whole process needs to be defined and ownership taken of these processes and communicated to the LEO’s and Courts.

  Sounds like an administrator would be the second in command.

• 

  Albert on March 24 at 8:03 a.m.

  There is of course absolutely no excuse for this lack of legal responsibility as demonstrated by the “Prosecutor’s Office”. The citizens of Spokane are held hostage by an elected official who consistently demonstrates a complete and total lack of dedication to his duties to protect the citizens who elected him. For this lack of basic and fundamental commitment there can be no excuse. The law enforcement personnel complete extensive arrest reports, file them as required by law with the prosecutor’s office, temporarily detain the offender at the taxpayer’s cost, all to see the offender released without charges because Mr. Tucker will not perform his assigned duties. Violent and dangerous people walk out of the jail with no remorse and free of any required prosecution. This is not right and continues to endanger the general populace. Is there anyway that we can remove Mr. Tucker from office as of today??? We cannot afford to wait for another election when high-risk offenders are not prosecuted. I’m serious - not blogging - does anyone know how to legally remove Mr. Tucker??

• 

  MrDavis on March 24 at 8:08 a.m.

  The County Commissioners have decided that a racetrack is more important than public safety and taxpayers have to sacrifice for special interests. The public will continue to get the government it deserves until real changes are made.

• 

  omaha on March 24 at 8:20 a.m.

  First, little surprise that Steve Tucker was unavailable for comment.

  Second, if they didn’t gut the property and drug unit by getting rid of several prosecutors and support staff then we wouldn’t have these problems.

• 

  cowboy on March 24 at 8:37 a.m.

  It takes up to nine times to get the law breaker into court? Why bother if i was Ozzy i would just turn a deaf ear. then when people get upset just show them the paper trail. His guys cant be expected to do their jobs with out a prosecutors office doing theirs.

  9 times the prosecutors office dropped the ball. Multiply that by thousands. No wonder we are broke.

• 

  eagleproducer on March 24 at 9:20 a.m.

  The real criminals in Spokane sit in the corporate office blocks and bellied up to the bar at the Police Guild building.

• 

  omaha on March 24 at 9:25 a.m.

  Hey spoketucky, I’m pretty sure the “real criminals that sit in the corporate blocks” weren’t the ones who stole my car last year. I’m also pretty sure the “real criminals that sit in the corporate blocks” didn’t burglarize my co-workers house last month.

• 

  misjustice on March 24 at 11:34 a.m.

  Tucker, Tucker; rhymes with…..

  Great police work is being undermined by the failure of Tucker, and the citizens of this community are the ones paying the ultimate price.

  Yes, we need a “professional prosecutor” to evaluate the lack thereof in the office of Tucker…and just how much will a report like that cost us? Tucker should be fired.

• 

  Anne_Observer on March 24 at 1:18 p.m.

  We don’t need a new jail. We need fewer people in jail. Especially people in jail for stupid reasons, like possession of “controlled substances”. I have a clue for you, people: the “war on drugs” was lost over 25 years ago. Not to mention that Federal drug laws are unconstitutional.

  Countries that have decriminalized drugs have seen dramatic REDUCTIONS in crime, and the social costs associated with crime, such as police and prison costs. At the same time, use and addiction rates did NOT go up significantly.

  A great example is Portugal. Get on Google and look up the “Portugal Experiment”. It is an eye-opener.

  Further, if we are going to spend that much money on the prosecutor’s office, we should spend as much for the public defender’s office. It’s the ethical thing to do. Right now, public defenders in Spokane county are woefully overworked and underfunded. That is not balance.

• 

  horse_feathers on March 24 at 2:08 p.m.

  The Sheriff’s Office wants a new jail so they are using any angle they can. Usually they just resort to using the media to scare citizens, now as they get more desperate they are starting to eat thier own.

  The philosophy: Build it and we will fill it.

  Even local government’s goal is to grow and become fat, well they’re already busting out of thier uniforms,but because they have been asked to diet they are becoming nasty.

• 

  west on March 25 at 5:35 p.m.

  As long as the prosecuting office people live in secluded neighborhoods, isolating them from crime..the problem will continue…

• 

  KeepingitReal on May 17 at 12:21 p.m.

  Maybe if we had the “eye for an eye” mentality we wouldnt have so many people running in and out of jail either…..if nothing happens to the criminals besides giving them a place to stay with free food, cable, and equal rights (which the victims didnt have when they commited their crimes) why should they behave…??