Step 1: Collect what’s owed by criminals

Criminals owe county courts and victims $86 million in unpaid fees and restitution.

And Spokane County Clerk Thomas Fallquist, who’s in charge of collecting those debts, doesn’t even know where to find 3,600 of those felons because they won’t give him their current addresses.

Fallquist told a group of about 40 law and justice officials from the county and the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley on Thursday that he needs their help if he’s going to go after the scofflaws and get them to pay up.

“I can do all the accounting and communication with felons on a daily basis, and I’m going to get nowhere because the criminals are laughing. They know I have no muscle to enforce this,” Fallquist said.

The good news for Fallquist, and bad news for bad guys, is that the plea garnered quick promises from Sheriff Mark Sterk and Prosecutor Steve Tucker to act as Fallquist’s enforcers.

Score one for Thursday’s criminal justice summit, an event organized by Spokane County commissioners to get a handle on rising demands from the county’s officers, jailers, attorneys and judges, and to encourage them to work better with each other.

Officials spent the morning describing their biggest challenges.

For many, those issues involved scheduling and manpower difficulties caused by the need to transport prisoners to and from jail and the courts.

The jail is already anticipating more than $500,000 in unbudgeted overtime this year, in large part due to transport needs, and Public Defender John Rodgers said that his attorneys still sometimes have trouble getting in to see their clients.

That could be the first place to invest, said Commissioner Todd Mielke.

“If I’m looking for something that’s going to give a big bang for the buck, the more efficient movement of prisoners to courtrooms is a big one,” Mielke said.

Rodgers also reminded the group that while Tucker can determine which cases merit prosecution, the public defender must take every case that’s presented to him.

Other needs expressed at the meeting included a Superior Court request for another judge and courtroom, Tucker’s continuing request for more attorneys and support staff and many departments’ desire for additional office space.

Sterk said that pressure on the jail could be relieved, and more pressure could be put on misdemeanants if judges more frequently mandated electronic home monitoring of offenders.

“I feel a little bit responsible for this meeting for going in a month ago to ask for more people,” said Tucker, adding that he only made that request because referrals from law enforcement are up more than 60 percent this year.

A projected $3 million to $4 million general fund surplus has already been whittled down considerably, said Mielke, who explained that overtime has eaten into about $1 million of that total, and another $1 million has been committed to pursuing grants.

Mielke said he has been surprised by the number and extent of the criminal justice requests coming before commissioners.

So far this year county commissioners have agreed to additional staff for the prosecutor, more corrections officers for the jail, more beds at Geiger Corrections Center, more sheriff’s deputies on the streets and about $3 million to fund the local share of a childhood mental illness grant, said Mielke.

“Maybe we’re naively assuming that the 2005 budget would get everyone through 2005,” he said.

Commissioner Mark Richard said the board is holding off on hiring any more law and justice employees until they have a chance to thoroughly review everyone’s needs.

Deciding what should be done might require an outside consultant, Richard said.

The county spends about 60 percent of its general fund budget on law, safety and justice, said County CEO Marshall Farnell. For 2005 that’s about $85 million.

One thing that won’t be fixed easily is the primary source of work, said Commissioner Phil Harris.

“The challenge is bad people,” Harris said.