When Darien police arrest a teenager under 18 years old who then has to appear in court, that court was usually the Court for Juvenile Matters in Stamford, which is about to close.
Instead, those cases will be going to a state courthouse in Bridgeport, the Connecticut Judicial Branch announced Tuesday.
A total of $77 million was cut from the Judicial Branch budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1. The announcement did not say when the closure and transfers would take place.
Bridgeport Superior Court for Juvenile Matters and Detention Center (photo from Connecticut Judicial Branch website)
“It is unfortunate that these courthouse closings must occur,” said Judge Patrick L. Carroll III, the chief court administrator for the Judicial Branch.
“They will be disruptive and will impact many people. I want to stress that the closure of courthouses is not driven by savings generated by closing the facilities. Rather, these closings are required because of the loss of staff, through attrition, a strict hiring freeze and layoffs that have already been announced.”
“However,” he added, “we are doing the best that we can to position the Judicial Branch so that we can continue to meet the needs of the people we serve, despite significantly fewer resources.”
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— The latest Connecticut Judicial Branch news releases are posted on the Judicial Branch’s website home page. A Web page about ongoing budget cuts in the Judicial Branch budget has also been set up and is updated as new information is announced.
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The Bridgeport Superior Court for Juvenile Matters and Detention Center is at 60 Housatonic Ave., in a separate building from two other Bridgeport state courthouses and just north of the central bus station (which is just north of the Bridgeport train station).
The Connecticut Judicial Branch administration has indicated in the past, according to Darien police, that the detention center in Bridgeport may be closed, with teenagers detained in a detention center in Hartford.
The Judicial Branch’s announcement also said juvenile courts in Danbury and Torrington would also close, and the entire courthouse in Willimantic would be shuttered, with cases going to other courthouses. The courthouse in Stamford would remain open, with only juvenile cases being transferred to Bridgeport.
In his full statement, Carroll said the Judicial Branch would still provide essential services to defendants, but the state budget is expected to continue to be tight in the future, so plans were being made for lower spending in future fiscal years. Here’s another excerpt of his statement:
We estimate that the Branch will be operating with well over 500 fewer employees at the end of next fiscal year as opposed to the beginning of the fiscal year because we will be unable to replace staff who have been laid off or who leave because of retirements and resignations.
Moreover, the following fiscal year shows no promise of relief and may even be worse. The bottom line is that we will not have enough staff to operate the 43 courthouses we have today and will struggle to staff the courthouses that remain open. So, we are positioning the Branch to operate with far fewer employees in the future.
Darienite.com reported Monday that state budget cuts have already resulted in difficulties getting arrest warrants approved (they must be approved by both a prosecutor and a judge).
From our report on Monday about an arrest warrant application for a man later arrested on sexual assault charges:
Because of state budget restrictions in the Connecticut Judicial Branch, the police arrest warrant application sat around for about six weeks in state Superior Court in Stamford before it was signed on June 8.
In this time, both the victim and the accused employee continued to both work at the small restaurant. Neither of the two, nor restaurant management, knew whether the accused employee would be arrested.
Police have waited for a number of arrest warrants to be approved in recent weeks, and have sometimes found that the court system has misfiled arrest warrants that have been approved. Police are now forbidden from visiting the courthouse to get quicker approval of warrants unless the situation is particularly dire.
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