
{"id":20658,"date":"2011-09-08T10:55:52","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T14:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=20658"},"modified":"2011-09-08T11:18:11","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T15:18:11","slug":"settlement-center-budget-slashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/09\/08\/settlement-center-budget-slashed\/","title":{"rendered":"Settlement center budget slashed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>This story is the third in a series about the real and potential effects to Orange County residents of state budget cuts. This week, we look at the local court system.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Each year in Orange County Criminal District Court, about 350 cases never make it to trial.<br \/>\nInstead, the cases are mediated by the staff of the Dispute Settlement Center (DSC), one of 20 community mediation centers serving 80 counties across North Carolina. But in this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s state budget, funding for criminal district court mediation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c $1.1 million statewide and about $60,000 for the DSC \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was eliminated to help close a nearly $2.5 billion shortfall, and that service will no longer be available. <\/p>\n<p>Frances Henderson, executive director of the DSC, said that criminal district court cases that her staff resolve typically include cases where there is a personal conflict and that might not need to go to court. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a court service that has worked well for citizens. It enables us to work with a population that might not ordinarily come to us, but they clearly have some interpersonal things going on that are stressing them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. <\/p>\n<p>Founded in 1978, the DSC was the first community mediation center in North Carolina, and in 1999 the General Assembly approved legislation officially recognizing the work of the centers. <\/p>\n<p>The legislation states: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The General Assembly finds that it is in the public interest to encourage the establishment of community mediation centers \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 to support the work of these centers in facilitating communication, understanding, reconciliation and settlement of conflicts in communities, courts and schools, and to promote the widest possible use of these centers by the courts and law enforcement officials across the State.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>It continues: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Each chief district court judge and district attorney shall encourage mediation for any criminal district court action pending in the district when the judge and district attorney determine that mediation is an appropriate alternative.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>The legislation approved this year cutting funding for mediation included a provision that centers could assess a $60 dispute resolution fee from the defendant for resolved cases, which the DSC said it will not do. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That might sound good on first blush, but basically it sets up an unethical position for mediators to be in,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Henderson said, adding that it could encourage mediators to only accept cases that could be viewed as easy to resolve, or to push parties to settle their cases when they might not be ready to do so. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This just plays hell with our ethics, so our center is not participating in this fee program, and that takes us out of court, because we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work for free,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added. <\/p>\n<p>District Attorney Jim Woodall agreed. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think when you resolve a case, you should do it because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the right thing to do, not because you can get a $60 fee,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think, unfortunately, cases will get resolved that aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really resolved, just to get the money.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know who came up with that idea, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent much time in a court setting,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added. <\/p>\n<p>The center will continue to do community mediation cases that come directly to the center, Henderson said, but the courts provided a better avenue to reach a certain set of clients.<br \/>\nBecause of the funding elimination \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the $60,000 the center lost had been reduced from $85,000 the year before \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the DSC had to lay off one of its six staff members, a person who had been with the center for 12 years. All told, the center lost about $80,000 in funding this year, or about 20 percent of its budget. <\/p>\n<p>But the real loss, Henderson said, is the loss to the community. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I see what a relief it is when people are able to sit down and mediate face to face. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very healing. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an enormous release of stress. I see the good that it does,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To not be in court offering that to that clientele is rough.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Woodall said he and his staff will certainly miss the services the DSC provides. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was just always nice to have the Dispute Settlement Center available, because on any given court day there were always a number of cases that they had the ability to mediate and normally get a better outcome than you could in the courtroom,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of times in court a dispute may be settled to one side\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s satisfaction, but not to both. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 What [residents] are going to miss out on is that resolution where both sides get some satisfaction.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>And, unfortunately, with 200 to 250 cases a day, Woodall and his staff don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have time to do the mediating. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of things come into district court that we all, everyone who works in the district court, feel like shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be in a court setting,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We work real hard trying to have those things not result in a criminal conviction.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>For example, cases involving injury to personal property can often be resolved with one party replacing or paying for the property, he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Without the Dispute Settlement Center mediating, some of those cases will end up in convictions for a person that wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been a conviction otherwise,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Woodall said. <\/p>\n<p><strong>The bigger picture<\/strong><br \/>\nWoodall said the loss of mediation coupled with other cuts in the court system will take a toll on his office and others. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lost a series of resources,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, noting that his office had to lay off assistant district attorneys as well as support staff, and the clerk of court also lost staffing. In Woodall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office, non-lawyer staff was reduced by 20 percent, while attorney staff was reduced 10 percent. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is no way to take up the slack,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Down in our Chatham office now, there are some times when we just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have enough staff to answer the phone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Despite the changes, Woodall believes there won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a sustained backlog of cases. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think what might happen is, at the end of the day, where we would normally get through all the trials \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to probably be some of those cases that get bumped over to another day,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That means people have to come back to court another day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c witnesses and defendants and victims.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Woodall said he understands that in a tight budget, reductions must be made in certain areas so that core programs can be protected. <\/p>\n<p>But this year, his office lost two domestic-violence victim legal assistants. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re cutting into the core programs now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each year in Orange County Criminal District Court, about 350 cases never make it to trial.<br \/>\nInstead, the cases are mediated by the staff of the Dispute Settlement Center (DSC), one of 20 community mediation centers serving 80 counties across North Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20659,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20658\/revisions\/20659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}