Forget CARMAGEDDON. Justice in San Francisco is set to come a shuddering standstill after the Superior Court issued pink slips to more than 40% of its staff. San Francisco will shutter 25 of its 63 courtrooms — almost all in the civil division — as officials scramble to bridge a $13.75 million budget shortfall caused by state cuts that eliminated $350 million from courts throughout California.
In other budget fallout news, Marin County Superior Court abandoned its controversial plan to corral juveniles, and their attorneys, in glass enclosures during court appearances. The county will instead permanently close its only juvenile court facility and, come September, begin hearing juvenile cases at the main courthouse. Officials cited mounting fiscal woes and ongoing concerns about the safety of the existing court facility at juvenile hall.
In the event any of our courthouses actually remain open for business, municipal and transit police authorities could soon find themselves in the dock over their repeated refusal to release the identity of officers under investigation. With the SFPD and BART police continuing to withhold the names and disciplinary records of officers involved in a recent string of shootings and civilian deaths, the Northern California chapter of the ACLU is considering legal action to obtain the information under government accountability and public access laws.
Stumbling from the less-than-sublime to the just-plain-ridiculous, California corrections officials ripped a page straight from Margaret Thatcher’s political playbook in seeking to shift the spotlight from the ongoing hunger strike at five state prisons by characterizing the protest as the work of prison gangs. The inmates are demanding changes in prison practices and improved living conditions.