Introduction
The issue of heavy caseloads in the criminal justice system has garnered much attention recently and the overbearing caseloads are seen as one of the serious executive challenge faced by the prosecutors, courts, public defenders, and police. The national commissions have frequently protested about the overcrowded and overworked criminal system. The quantitative demands of the cases that flood in surpass the capabilities of the resources and ways of the justice system as stated by Israel (1996). However, the extremely high levels of caseload found today are not newly discovered phenomena as there were substantially high caseloads during the 1920s. However, the caseloads have worsened significantly over the last couple of decades. The courts are able to give just a couple of minutes to each case.
Millions of people get arrested each year, and many are poor and thus qualify for a public defender. On any given day, it is the traffic cases that make up most of the court docket. A study has acknowledged that the municipal and regional context are significant when criticizing the leadership of the court. There are budget shortfalls, and there is a widening gap between the supply of lawyers and their services (Aaaron, 2013). A solution would be to increase the number of attorneys and lower the number of criminals. It is being recognized that the current caseloads and overflowing prisons are eating up resources. Legislatures and advocates are teaming up with public defenders, to address the issues and make sure that the money is being spent efficiently. Certain nonviolent crimes can be moved out of the courts, and the courts can spend their time and resource on the most serious charges where public well-being is at stake. Minor crimes can be shifted to special courts, and only serious cases can be sent for major trials.
The people who are more likely to land on the wrong side of law should be given support for the underlying issues such as poverty, addiction or mental illness. Fellow defenders and the federal government are paying more attention to this approach. According to Aaaron (2013), family members can work as volunteers and help the law and police. The financial pressures in most states are forcing the legal systems to take a good look at their court system as those number are hard to ignore.
The courts before the 1960s showed limited administrative capabilities and the simple organizations could work well only as long as the judges addressed their caseloads diligently (Henley and Suhr, 2004). However, the modern concepts of caseload management for the timely progress of cases are still not embraced. The growing communities and higher crime have led to larger workloads. Today, there is a dire need for a rational court management. The court systems have simplified their jurisdictional structures to deal with the increasing social and legal complexities. Unification reforms and coordination have become increasingly critical. State-level administrative structures have been developed to complement local court administration. The first role was to gather, analyze and report on statistical information on the caseloads of all state courts. The evolving legal complexity and social trends, plus the caseload growth demand a higher capacity for administration (Henley and Suhr, 2004).
Caseflow management is encouraged as a better coordination of court procedures, and efficient use of its resources can help progress the cases in a timely fashion. This can help the judges and administrations to supervise the case better and set realistic and meaningful deadlines. Moreover, the trial dates should be credible. Caseflow management empathizes on a regular court control and monitoring of the case progress, case-disposition time standards and an early court intervention (Caseflow Management, 2016). Effecting calendaring and docketing practices, control of post-disposition case events and use of information systems for monitoring status of cases can help lower the volume of cases in the courtroom. It is essential to lower the caseload in state courts from an administrative standpoint, and these add to the burden on the legal system and cause delays in processing cases. The judicial administration is looking for ways to reduce caseloads and how to speed up the cases.
References
Aaaron, K. (2013). Courts explore new ways to deal with heavy caseloads, overflowing jails, americawhatwentwrong Retrieved from http://americawhatwentwrong.org/story/changing- courts/
Caseflow Management. (2016), NCSC International Retrieved from http://www.ncsc.org/Topics/Court-Management/Caseflow-Management/Resource-Guide.aspx
Henley, S. and Suhr J.H. (2004).The Role of Court Administration in the Management, Independence, and Accountability of the Courts, floridabar Retrieved from http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/JNJournal01.nsf/d59e2cf27607c0cf85256ad1005ba53f/ cda3d8cf837090b785256e43004bf0bf?OpenDocument
Israel, J. H. (1996). Excessive criminal justice caseloads: Challenging the conventional wisdom. Florida Law Review, 48, 761-875.
