Philadelphia City Hall. Photo: Jon Bilous/Shutterstock.com

Court slowdowns from the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the hundreds of arrests during the recent wave of protests in Philadelphia, are going to lead to a "tsunami" of cases the criminal justice system is going to have to deal with in the coming months, stakeholders warned Philadelphia City Council members recently in an effort to help secure funding for agencies that Mayor Jim Kenney has proposed to slash.

"We know that a tsunami of cases, a caseload like we've never seen before is coming," District Attorney Larry Krasner told City Council members at a budget hearing earlier this week.

Both Krasner's office and the Defender Association of Philadelphia are facing budget cuts as a result of city revenue shortfalls in the wake of shutdowns aimed at stemming the COVID-19 pandemic. Krasner and Keir Bradford-Grey, the chief public defender, told council members enacting the mayor's proposed cuts could lead to a pullback on services from their agencies, and Bradford-Grey said also it could mean layoffs of defenders.

"It would cause us to have additional layoffs at a time when our services are going to be in more demand than ever," Bradford-Grey said. "With the amount of unemployed people due to COVID, more people are going to qualify for our services."

The District Attorney's Office is facing an $8 million cut from what it had been expecting to receive before the COVID-19 pandemic ground the world's economy to a halt. Under the mayor's initial budget, the agency had been set to receive an increase from the $39 million allocated in 2020, but instead the latest budget proposes that the DAO should receive $33.3 million.

The cuts would come after the prosecutors' office has opened nearly 800 cases related to the unrest, according to Krasner, but likely before the courts are able to get back online to begin grappling with a growing backlog of cases, which a report from WHYY said has already topped 15,000.

Krasner told council members during the hearing that the latest proposed cut would mean a 25% reduction in payroll for the department.

The Defender Association had been set to get nearly $48.5 million under the mayor's initial proposal, but the revised, post-COVID budget proposes a $2 million cut. However, Bradford-Grey told the council the latest proposal would in effect cut more than $3 million from the agency's initial proposal, because the mayor's pre-COVID budget already proposed axing more than $1 million from the office's initial ask.

All legal agencies in Philadelphia are facing budget cuts as a result of the COVID-related economic downturn.

The First Judicial District, which had initially been set to receive $117 million, is set for a 1% reduction in the revised budget, or a cut of $1.2 million.

The Law Department is also set to see a significant cut if the mayor's proposal is enacted. The new budget proposes an 11% decrease for the agency, or a reduction of $1.8 million from the $16.3 million that had been initially proposed. The department had been set for a slight increase in the 2021 budget; however, the new proposal would bring the department's budget to less than what was adopted in 2019. According to City Solicitor Marcel Pratt, the budget proposal would mean the office will likely have to pump the breaks on technological updates that had already been in the works.

During Monday's budget hearing, which focused on the FJD, DA's Office and Defender Association, FJD President Judge Idee Fox fielded several questions about efforts to equip the courts with technology that would allow for remote hearings.

Fox said the court is hoping to have remote video capabilities in all courtrooms by July. She also said leadership is working to determine how to reopen the courts in a way that would allow for social distancing.

"I think those days of putting 100 people in a cell in the basement of the Stout Center are over," she said.

When it came to the District Attorney's Office and the Defender Association, council members focused much of their questions on gun violence, which has been increasing in recent years, and police accountability, asking how the cuts might affect those efforts.

Krasner noted his office has recently stepped up efforts to work more closely with the police department on gun violence, including having two assistant district attorneys working out of each police precinct and establishing an intelligence unit to help identify those at high risk for engaging in shootings. However, he said all of those efforts, as well as the recent efforts to reduce the prison population, will be undone without enough resources.

"It would be absolutely devastating, especially at a time when we are being invited to do more than ever, and want to do more than ever, and at a time when we are facing this tsunami coming at us," Krasner said.

If the mayor's proposals are enacted, defenders, Bradford-Grey said, are looking at a 25% increase in the daily workload, given the anticipated increases from the protests and the court's COVID-related backlog. Combined with extended hours, no hazard pay and no money to keep defenders' salaries on par with their prosecutor counterparts, morale would likely become a problem too, Bradford-Grey said.

"Investments in us now will only save money," Bradford-Grey said. "Either we're going to be able to do the work, or people will be in jail longer."