When We Waste Money on Politically-motivated Prosecutions & Death Penalty Prosecutions, the Administration of Justice Suffers!!(court staff layoffs)

In a Los Angeles Times piece, the hits that are coming and will continue to come from diversion of resources to politically motivated prosecutions, making people plead the sheet (vs negotiating an appropriate charge which includes lesser and includeds listed in the indictment/complaint), harassing lawfully operating medical marijuana dispensaries and insisting on death penalty prosecutions (when we can't afford them, vs life sentences-see http://informant.kalwnews.org/2011/07/the-high-cost-of-capital-punishment-in-california/), taking insurance fraud prosecutions for greedy insurance companies in cases where the prosecution is being done in retaliation for the claimants or applicant refusing to accept an unreasonable offer vs paying court staff needed to get the cases through the system are coming to pass. The tragic narrow-mindedness is the resulting likely case backlog growth, which may cause cases to be dismissed or reduce the number of new cases the DA's offices can accept and handle [See: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0720-court-cuts-20110720,0,6855877.story].

Kamala Harris is Not Leading in Crises Like I Thought She Would

When Kamala Harris came to San Bernardino during her campaign, I asked her how good were her budget hustling skills given the hiring freezes that had been in place since Gov Davis. I note with interest Kamala Harris complaining about the $71 million in cuts the Attorney General's office is facing [See article covering subject @ http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/233141-proposed-budget-cuts-anger-calif.-sc-ag]. $71 million can be cut into by working in more heat in the summer and cool in the winter, switching to LED lighting, not defending death penalty sentences; I think maybe conviction rates were better in the days when people had to open windows and turn the fans on. Maybe we need some televideo appearance legislation so agents and DAGs (Deputy Attorney Generals) can work from a more central and efficient location. Cut traveling to conferences. Buy the DVD's from the conferences and pass them around. If the conference is interactive, use teleconferencing--heck the regional water boards in the state do it (Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board)! I have often wondered, with CBA's (Collective Bargaining Agreements) in place that cause DDA's (Deputy District Attorneys) to show up and work their non-overtime hours, and those hours only, maybe its time to not penalize DDA's and investigators (comment directed to Human Resources Managers & union stewards) that might want to work off the clock because of professional pride/dedication. In the Sheriff's offices there are Reserve Deputies that not only donate their time, but often thousands of dollars to being able to assist law enforcement in their communities. The spirit of voluntarism was spoken of by Barack Obama as needing rebirth in this nation for us to fight through our current crises. Policy changes may be needed to not just keep an efficient department, but take it to the next level.