by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Stagnant State funding is making it difficult for the State Attorneys Office to keep pace with a Jacksonville Sheriffs Office that has never been richer, State Attorney Harry Shorstein said this week.
Shorstein’s office didn’t receive any of the $43 million budget increase Mayor John Peyton poured into local fire and police services last fall because state statutes prevent local funding for state attorneys. But Peyton’s Safety First initiative has increased the state attorney’s workload.
More money seems to be translating to more arrests, said Shorstein. That’s given his office more cases to prosecute with a budget that’s largely the same as last year.
“It’s a hell of a problem,” said Shorstein. “The State is not stepping up to the plate like the local government. If we continue with large City budgets for law enforcement while keeping it small on the state level, eventually it won’t work at all.”
Governor Jeb Bush’s initial budget released Tuesday didn’t increase funding for State Attorney offices statewide. Bush is seeking to spend about $20.5 million on Shorstein’s office this year compared to $20.7 last year.
Dropping crime numbers are a good sign, said Shorstein, but they shouldn’t result in dropping budgets for prosecutors. Shorstein distinguished between crimes and arrests.
A dip in serious crime is often the result of an increase in arrests for smaller crimes, he said. And arrests create work for prosecutors, regardless of the charge’s severity.
“Our workload isn’t driven by crime but by arrests,” said Shorstein. “Arrests are up, which I believe is a product of increased funding.”
Though the local crime rate is largely following the national downward trend, Shorstein said the local murder rate is up. That crime creates the most work for the state attorneys office due to the complexity of the investigations and resulting prosecution.
The workload is falling on a slightly undermanned staff. Shorstein’s office currently employs 88 attorneys, four short of a full staff. Kathy Weintraub, the office’s executive director, said tight budgets were hurting the office’s competitiveness for new hires.
At $37,000 a year to start, the office’s openings don’t attract many experienced attorneys said Weintraub. Even recent law school grads have a hard time working for that paycheck when they’re saddled with school debt that often approaches six figures.
“When someone gets out of law school with $100,000 in debt, it’s hard to convince them to take a job at that salary,” said Weintraub.
State Attorneys salaries have remained essentially stagnant since 2001, she said.
The City is prohibited by State statutes from contributing money toward the State Attorneys office payroll or any other day-to-day expenses. But the City has been a willing partner in joint ventures targeting juvenile offenders, said Shorstein.
On Tuesday, the City Council’s Finance Committee approved $246,000 in funding for a variety of youth programs. The programs seek to intervene early to keep youth offenders from becoming grown up criminals.
Since Shorstein’s office began emphasizing the programs in 1993, juvenile crime statistics are down across the board. Murders involving juveniles were down 72 percent from a decade earlier, sex offenses down 96 percent and aggravated assault down 288 percent.
Given those results, Shorstein said he would continue to look for ways to work with the City to lighten Jacksonville’s crime burden and his office’s workload.
“We’re trying to find ways the City can help us out,” said Shorstein. “I believe they understand our problems and appreciate the job we do.”