Drafter
Clerk 03/26/2003
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A MOTION approving the reports, Law, Safety and Justice Strategic Integration Plan and the LSJ Program Alternatives Strategy and Approach.
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WHEREAS, the county is committed to protecting public safety and ensuring a just, fair, efficient, effective and functioning criminal justice system, and
WHEREAS, services required by state law consist largely of those services related to the criminal justice system, which is law enforcement, courts, adult and juvenile detention, prosecution and indigent defense and some services related to public health, and
WHEREAS, the elements of the county criminal justice system are the responsibility of separately elected officials, including the executive, fifty-one superior court judges, twenty-six district court judges, the prosecuting attorney and the sheriff, and
WHEREAS, within those operations, the county functions as a regional service provider to municipal jurisdictions, particularly in the areas of detention, criminal prosecution and the courts, and
WHEREAS, recent events have proven that effective access to criminal information and criminal case management information improves the capabilities of law enforcement and public safety officials, and
WHEREAS, both the federal and state governments have identified that the ability for local governments to share information contributes to the success of broader homeland security efforts, and
WHEREAS, almost three-quarters of the 2003 current expense budget is devoted to the criminal justice system, and
WHEREAS, to balance a $42 million deficit in the current expense budget over the next two years, the county must therefore look for ways to reduce costs in the criminal justice system, and
WHEREAS, in the 2003 budget, the council identified $6.1 million of savings in the department of adult and juvenile detention and strategically reinvested those savings in activities that will continue to reduce growth in the costs of the c...
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