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Budget woes
may impede prosecutors
By Mike Sherman
Montgomery Advertiser
The state agency that trains district attorneys, inspects
domestic violence shelters and distributes funding for victim-service
officers was cut about 25 percent in this year's budget. Randall Hillman,
executive director of the Alabama Office of Prosecution Services, said a
30-year employee will retire Nov. 1 and may not be replaced, leaving a
staff of five to serve the state's 41 judicial circuits. OPS employees are
not members of the state merit system, but are eligible for the State
Employees' Retirement System.
OPS also administers funding for district attorneys who were cut an
average of 10 percent statewide in the 2004 budget. The district attorneys
General Fund line item was cut from $26.8 million to $24.1 million. The
General Fund line item for OPS was cut from $763,756 in 2003 to $380,280
in 2004.
Also, the office distributes more than $1 million annually to support
domestic violence shelters and close to $1 million annually in victim
assessment fees.
He said winter and summer continuing legal education training conferences
may be decentralized due to the cutbacks.
"It is frustrating. We are at the point where morale is low and it is
extremely difficult to keep qualified DAs around the state. Some would
rather go to work in the private sector making more money and having more
job security. Now they don't know if they will have a job from one day to
the next," said Hillman, who is appointed by the executive committee of
the Alabama District Attorneys' Association.
Randall Houston, district attorney of the 19th Circuit, that
includes Autauga, Elmore and Chilton counties, said, "OPS does things we
don't have time to fool with. We gather the money. They separate it out
and make sure everybody gets a check and has insurance.
"Before OPS was created, some DAs got one paycheck from the county and one
from the state. It was a nightmare and DAs in different counties had
different insurance," Houston said. "Also, we don't have funds for
a computer expert and they have one when we need one."
Houston said he had noticed no difference in service since the new
budget became effective Oct. 1. "They tightened their belt," he said.
Provision of continuing criminal legal education is important for
prosecutors because most such legal training concerns civil law. If OPS
cannot provide such courses, prosecutors must travel out of state to find
it at greater cost, Houston said.
Kathy Wells, public policy director of the Alabama Coalition Against
Domestic Violence, said OPS distributes marriage-license fees which
support the state's 19 domestic violence centers.
"There is a $30 marriage license fee that is collected by county probate
judges and distributed to the domestic violence shelters by OPS," Wells
said.
"The people at OPS are good friends and we work closely," she said.
"They make a monitoring visit every year to make sure the money is used
for shelter programs," she said.
Joyce Miller, a victims' counselor with Victims of Crime and Leniency in
Montgomery, a private, nonprofit advocacy group, said OPS uses a victims'
assessment fee to employ a minimum of one full-time victim service officer
in each judicial circuit.
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