opinion

Can Iowa's incredibly shrinking courts get smaller?

How much can Iowa’s courts be cut before state leaders act?

Already, the judiciary branch is operating with 10 percent fewer people than one year ago, and 115 essential positions are unfilled. Judge vacancies are held open up to 12 months.

Already, technology is falling behind, and in some cases, falling apart. In October, the electronic system used by lawyers, judges and clerks to file Iowa court records went down for a week.

Already, there is no longer a clerk of court for every county. Now, 62 clerks supervise the work in Iowa’s 100 county courthouses.

Already, there's a moratorium on expanding innovative efforts to keep teens out of juvenile courts and non-violent drug addicts and mentally ill people out of jails.

Already, the judicial branch has backed off from a promise made two years ago to try all cases on the date scheduled without delays.

As Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady explained to lawmakers on Wednesday, these “shortcomings” are growing. “It means Iowans are losing access to justice.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds has announced mid-year budget cuts that include a proposed $1.6 million hit to the judicial branch. In a tough budget year, everyone must make a sacrifice, right? Wrong. First, the courts have already given. The judiciary budget is $15 million in the hole — the amount of funding it would take to provide the services that were provided to Iowans just two years ago.

Second, Iowa’s judicial branch is not just another state agency. It’s an equal branch of government that must administer justice according to law equally to all people.

Cady, however, did not begin his State of the Judiciary address focused on these cuts.

As he did last year, Cady showed what happens when a state invests in its courts. He talked about “Too Good To Lose,” a Polk County-based program devoted “to the unique challenges teenage girls face.” The program has helped the girls, who have criminal records, become drug free and go back to school. He cited other juvenile diversion programs that diverted more than 10,000 children from the formal court system and avoided more than $14 million in costs.

He mentioned a special court in Scott County that, in one year, has kept 19 mentally ill people out of prison and saved $300,000. He mentioned that other specialty courts avoided $4 million in costs.

Already, these investments are producing results.

“These stories show how thoughtful changes to the process of justice transform hope into real opportunity for more children and their families and save millions of dollars for taxpayers,” Cady told lawmakers.

So what will it take for them to listen? A phase-out of drug courts and other specialty courts? Cutting employees by another 10 percent? More delays in civil lawsuits? Reducing hours at clerk’s offices even more, and forcing more rural Iowans to drive farther to get their day in court?

Enough already.

This editorial is the opinion of The Des Moines Register’s editorial board: David Chivers, president; Carol Hunter, executive editor; Lynn Hicks, opinion editor; and Andie Dominick, editorial writer.