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In Manhattan's U.S. District Court 39 trial judges preside over some of the nation's highest profile criminal cases. They average number of lawsuits they hear annually tops 12,000 making it the busiest court in the country. The court has hosted nearly a dozen major terrorism trials, countless mafia cases and even white-collar prosecutions of people like Martha Stewart and Bernie Madoff.
Now, as the result of federal budget cuts, the court is struggling to tread water amidst a heavy caseload and a series of crippling buyouts, furloughs, layoffs and wage freezes.
As America struggles to decrease government spending, one of the high-value targets selected by lawmakers is the criminal justice system.
Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska told the Associated Press that the caseload for judges in Manhattan has grown more than 10 percent in the last three years. At the same time, staffing has been cut a whopping 28 percent and wages have been frozen.
Judge Preska told the Associated Press that the judicial system "has a constitutional duty to resolve all of the cases filed, in the words of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 1, 'in a just, speedy and inexpensive manner.'"
Preska spoke recently to a panel of the New York County Lawyers' Association, saying that the recent 6.6 percent cut in the number of pretrial probation officers and a 20 percent cut in their budget mean fewer visits to the homes of thousands of defendants awaiting trial.
And when the cat's away, the mice will play.
"There's no escaping the fact that less supervision will lead to more crime and more danger to the community," Preska told reporters.
Preska says that things like the random search of one defendant's home recently that yielded 40 rounds of ammunition and another search resulted in the seizure of some 70 grams of crack and a bullet-proof vest, could be jeopardized as the result of a lack of funds and personnel.
Additionally the federal cuts have stalled plans to move security screening outside the courthouse to protect those in the building from anyone carrying weapons or explosives.
The situation is bad enough that some of the most respected judges on the federal bench have been forced to reduce spending on even pens and other office supplies.
At another federal courthouse across the East Side River in Brooklyn, where Chief Judge Carol Bagley Amon works, the cuts are also creating public safety concerns.
Bagley Amon said she agrees with Judge Preska's assessment and said as much at the same lawyer's association conference.
"I feel like all I should say is: 'Ditto and probably worse,'" she told the panel, citing the strain of handling 7,500 criminal and civil cases annually and numerous major criminal trials in a borough that is home to New York's five organized crime families.
Maybe the biggest threat in terms of public safety are the cuts to probation officers, down to just 34 from 54 previously.
"How do you keep up the safety of the community?" Bagley Amon asked. "The message I have is that the judiciary needs to be funded at the levels to carry out its duties."
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