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County board continues to wrestle with state funding cuts
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
The Houston County Board revisited a very pressing and perplexing issue during the August 5 meeting. The State Board of Public Defense (SBPD) decided to discontinue representing parents in child protection cases, effective July 8. The reason… 72 full-time public defenders’ positions were cut in July when cuts in state funding resulted in a $3.8 million deficit in the SBPD’s budget for 2009.
Public defenders can no longer accept appointments to represent parents in child in need of protection or services (CHIPS) or termination of parental rights (TPR) cases. In addition, public defenders will withdraw from representing parents in pending CHIPS or TPR cases as soon as a disposition in the case has been made.
By virtue of the state cuts, the burden to provide legal representation for persons who can’t afford an attorney has fallen on the county.
Houston County District Court Judge James Fabian, Court Administrator Darlene Larson, and Scott Simmons of the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC) discussed the issue with the county board.
Larson told the county board there are seven CHIPS cases pending where a lawyer must be provided.
“Is the county going to pay for the lawyers,” Larson asked the county board?
Judge Fabian told the board in most cases, the parents don’t know the laws, and can’t represent themselves. “They need a lawyer, otherwise they won’t receive due process,” the judge said.
“The county needs to pick up the costs of the CHIPS cases,” County Human Services Director Beth Wilms added. “Many of the parents coming to trial don’t know what’s going on. If they don’t receive due process, the issues usually drag out, and in the long run, it ends up costing human services more. The kids are placed in long-term foster care, which costs the community more money. We would be doing a disservice to the kids. Our mission should be to re-unify the family, if possible. That is what’s best for everyone.”
It was also noted that if a parent feels he or she didn’t receive due process, the judgement can be appealed, which costs even more money.
Simmons agreed that in the short run, the county needs to provide legal representation for parents who can’t afford a lawyer, but urged everyone to put more pressure on state legislators to put more money in the proper departments.
Simmons did point out, however, that if counties continue to foot the bill for defendants in these types of cases, a conflict of interest will be created, since the county will be paying for both the prosecution and defense.
The county currently has a contract with Rippe, Hammell and Murphy, to provide legal counsel for certain cases. The county board agreed to continue the contract, and has invited State Sen. Sharon Ropes and Rep. Ken Tschumper to an upcoming board meeting to discuss the issue farther.
Short term offender issue
County Jail Administrator Mark Schiltz then continued the discussion about state cuts to the short term offender program.
“This is a marquee issue of how the state is continuing to shift the financial burden onto the counties,” Simmons said. “It’s really a triple whammy. The county is saddled with the cost of housing the prisoner, if the jail is full, the county spends even more money farming the prisoner out, and then there’s the transportation costs involved.”
Schiltz and Simmons were referring to the recent reduction in state support to counties for housing short term offenders (STO). Up until 2003, all persons who committed state felonies were housed in one of the state prisons in Minnesota. Five years ago the state decided all felons with six months or less remaining on their sentences be transferred to the county in which they committed the crime to serve out their time.
The state set aside funds to help the counties pay for the housing of these prisoners, but it was drastically underfunded. The first year of the program, the state only reimbursed the counties $10 per day per prisoner. At that time, the going rate was between $65 to $100 per day, depending on the county.
County boards across the state registered an avalanche of complaints, which resulted in the state increasing the per diem to $30. With the state facing a $1 billion operating deficit, funds were once again cut. State-wide counties are receiving between $6 and $10 per day per prisoner in 2008 and Simmons said the reimbursement for 2009 will be $9 per day.
“This is another area where pressure needs to be put on our state legislators,” Simmons pointed out. “People need to know just how much of the financial burden the state has placed on the counties.”
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-- What??? I think the taxpayers of Houston County should be glad that the state shifted the financial burden of keeping these prisoners back to the counties. Whatever extra money that the County has to cough up is more than recouped from the savings to Houston County residents for not having to share in the burden of housing all the hoodlums in Hennepin and Ramsey County. Also, what's wrong with charging the prisoners themselves for some of this. Some of them may have no money/property but I'll bet most of them have something. We charge honest, hardworking people thousands of dollars for driving after 3 beers; what's wrong with collecting at least that much from these worthless potheads and perverts?