Orange County Courts Overcrowding

Prospective jurors summoned to Orange County Superior Court must often endure lines that stretch outside the courthouse and receive their assignment in an assembly room that is designed for 214 people but often holds double or triple that number. Court administrators have expressed alarm about the overcrowding, saying it creates nightmarish logistic problems for them and poses a safety risk for jurors.

Eighty-eight inmates were crammed into holding cells at South Orange County Municipal Court here Wednesday. At one point, 53 of them had one toilet to share. Dozens sat or sprawled on a cold, dirty floor awaiting their court appearances. Others sat handcuffed to chairs in the hallway. "There's no breathing room," said Lt. Scott Bowen of the Orange County Marshal's Department. "It's a real tight fit." Welcome to a typical day of inmate overcrowding here.

After nearly two decades of setbacks and delays, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to begin planning a new South County courthouse in Rancho Santa Margarita even though funding for the $82-million project has not been secured. The proposed development would house as many as 19 courtrooms and replace two woefully overcrowded court facilities in Laguna Niguel, where judges handle more cases per capita than any other Municipal Court in California.

Judge Pamela L. Iles once threatened to rename her courthouse the South Orange County Municipal Trailer Court after the handful of mobile offices that now encircle the main building. The makeshift structures serve as offices for the district attorney, public defender and court staff, and are symbols of how the judiciary here has outgrown its existing facility.

After nearly two decades of setbacks and delays, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to begin planning a new South County courthouse in Rancho Santa Margarita even though funding for the $82-million project has not been secured. The proposed development would house as many as 19 courtrooms and replace two woefully overcrowded court facilities in Laguna Niguel, where judges handle more cases per capita than any other Municipal Court in California.

Several Orange County judges from civil court began presiding over criminal trials Monday in an effort to ease the backlog of cases stemming from the state's three-strikes law. Superior Court officials said they hope the weeklong pilot program will help relieve a backlog of 134 pending three-strikes trials. "Some called it a strike-a-thon," said Superior Court Judge Thomas N. Thrasher Sr., who supervises the civil caseload and is one of six judges involved in the project.

Eighty-eight inmates were crammed into holding cells at South Orange County Municipal Court here Wednesday. At one point, 53 of them had one toilet to share. Dozens sat or sprawled on a cold, dirty floor awaiting their court appearances. Others sat handcuffed to chairs in the hallway. "There's no breathing room," said Lt. Scott Bowen of the Orange County Marshal's Department. "It's a real tight fit." Welcome to a typical day of inmate overcrowding here.

MORE THAN CROOKS: The high-profile criminal cases get most of the attention, but in Orange County a huge part of the court overload problem comes from civil cases. For example: This is the only county in the state where civil cases outnumber criminal cases 2 to 1 at the appellate level. . . . "We really don't understand it," says Justice Thomas F. Crosby Jr. of the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Don R. Roth said Friday that the county should consider asking its judges to work longer days in exchange for a four-day week in order to ease the courtroom logjam and jail overcrowding. "I think some judges would love it," Roth said. "I asked one of my judge friends if he would start a recall against me, and he said no." Roth's comments come as the county is scrambling to find $1.1 billion for proposed new jail and court facilities.

Prospective jurors summoned to Orange County Superior Court must often endure lines that stretch outside the courthouse and receive their assignment in an assembly room that is designed for 214 people but often holds double or triple that number. Court administrators have expressed alarm about the overcrowding, saying it creates nightmarish logistic problems for them and poses a safety risk for jurors.

Several Orange County judges from civil court began presiding over criminal trials Monday in an effort to ease the backlog of cases stemming from the state's three-strikes law. Superior Court officials said they hope the weeklong pilot program will help relieve a backlog of 134 pending three-strikes trials. "Some called it a strike-a-thon," said Superior Court Judge Thomas N. Thrasher Sr., who supervises the civil caseload and is one of six judges involved in the project.

Judge Pamela L. Iles once threatened to rename her courthouse the South Orange County Municipal Trailer Court after the handful of mobile offices that now encircle the main building. The makeshift structures serve as offices for the district attorney, public defender and court staff, and are symbols of how the judiciary here has outgrown its existing facility.

MORE THAN CROOKS: The high-profile criminal cases get most of the attention, but in Orange County a huge part of the court overload problem comes from civil cases. For example: This is the only county in the state where civil cases outnumber criminal cases 2 to 1 at the appellate level. . . . "We really don't understand it," says Justice Thomas F. Crosby Jr. of the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Don R. Roth said Friday that the county should consider asking its judges to work longer days in exchange for a four-day week in order to ease the courtroom logjam and jail overcrowding. "I think some judges would love it," Roth said. "I asked one of my judge friends if he would start a recall against me, and he said no." Roth's comments come as the county is scrambling to find $1.1 billion for proposed new jail and court facilities.