For months, public officials have been pointing to a backlog in criminal cases and claiming Mobile County does not have enough judges. According to the Administrative Office of Courts, it’s not just an excuse. The bench really is undermanned.
) - For months, public officials have been pointing to a backlog in criminal cases and claiming Mobile County does not have enough judges.
Under the formula, Baldwin is 2.65 circuit judges below its implied need, and Mobile is 2.63 judges under. That ranks third and fourth, respectively. Madison County, at 3.25 judges, ranks first. “I think, actually, we have an allocation problem more than we have a lack-of-judicial-manpower problem,” said James Reid, a retired Baldwin County Circuit Court judge who serves on the Alabama Judicial Resource Allocation Commission.The Alabama Legislature created the commission in 2017 to redistribute judges from overstaffed courthouses to understaffed ones. But it so far has failed to shift even one judicial position.
“So if this data is correct and Jefferson County is 10 judges over, it would take 20 years to correct the over-surplus of judges in Jefferson County and move them to other areas,” he said. “So I think … what really needs to be done is there needs to be some more legislation where the Legislature just mandates transfers of these judges.”
Drummond and Simpson both pointed to money included in the General Fund making its way through the House of Representatives. It includes additional funds to pay for judicial support workers in Mobile, but that money merely would replace funds put up by the county and city governments the past three years. Those funds expire this year.Law enforcement officials frequently have complained about the backlog slowing criminal cases at Mobile Government Plaza.
As a stopgap, four retired circuit court judges are gearing up to preside over jury trials on an as-needed basis. Yonugpeter said those judges – Charles Graddick, Rick Stout, John Lockett and Braxton Kitrell – will try as many cases as prosecutors can prepare above and beyond what the full-time judges can handle.“The biggest issue we’ve had in those last few years has been our staff is not been up to speed in terms of staffing the judges we already have,” he said.
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