discussion question
Im trying to study for my Law course and I need some help to understand this question.
Answer stated question and respond to 2 classmates.
Stated Question
After completing your introduction, provide a description of the number of criminal courts, courtrooms, and detention facilities available to service your county. What problems are your county’s criminal system experiencing? What do you think are some possible solutions?
Please include the name of the person or question to which you are replying in the subject line. For example, “Tom’s response to Susan’s comment.”
Classmate 1 Ron Fithen
My name is Ron Fithen and I currently reside in Wilmington, Ohio which is about 45 minutes northeast of Cincinnati. I have been employed by the Wilmington Police Department for the past 28 years. My current assignment is a Patrol Sergeant. My duties include K9 Unit Supervisor, Field Training Supervisor, and In-Service Training Coordinator. In my 28 years, I have had the opportunity to be a K9 Officer and SWAT Team Commander, with the K9 being the most rewarding experience of my career. Besides being a full-time law enforcement officer, I am a Commander for the Ohio Basic Peace Officer Academy located at Southern State Community College. I am also an Associate Professor in the Criminal Justice Studies program at Southern State Community College. I have taught numerous Law Enforcement classes since 2001. I could have retired three years ago, but I enjoy my job too much. My goal is to either be a Chief or Public Safety Director. I have also been asked to take over as the head of Criminal Justice Studies at the College once my Master’s degree is obtained.
Wilmington is the county seat of Clinton County. We have the Clinton County Common Pleas Court, Clinton County Juvenile Court, and Clinton County Municipal Court. Within Common Pleas, there are two courtrooms, one for criminal proceedings and the other for civil, such as divorce, child custody, etc. The Juvenile Court maintains two courtrooms. One is for the Juvenile Court magistrate who normally hears traffic offenses and minor misdemeanors. The other is for all other juvenile offenses to be heard. The Municipal Court one two courtrooms, one for traffic offenders utilized by a magistrate, and the other for all other offenses. We have one adult detention facility available to us at the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office. We do not have a Juvenile Detention facility within our county. Our Juvenile Court contracts with two juvenile detention facilities in neighboring counties for bed space which is always limited.
Currently, our court system is experiencing a severe meth addiction and homeless problem. Back in 2017, Clinton County ranked #3 in the State of Ohio for opioid related overdoses. Within the past 18 months, the drug user population has switched over to meth as the primary drug of choice. Most drug users I have dealt with stated that they were even concerned about the opioid epidemic and switched for fear of overdosing. As a rural city with a population of about 15,000, you wouldn’t think we would have a homeless issue. Many residents have expressed frustration with the police department for not dealing enough with the issues to combat homelessness. One of our frustrations lies with one of our local ministerial associations who cater to the homeless problem. They allow the homeless to congregate outside their building in a downtown business district and don’t “police” their own property. Many local investors and business owners have expressed their frustration to our City Council and one investor has pulled millions of dollars out of a project because of what he sees as the City’s lack of dealing with the homeless. As such, we were given direction to arrest all homeless for criminal trespass if they were squatting/loitering on someone else’s property.
With that being said, I think that the mental health issues for these subjects need to be addressed. The Mental Health agency in our county is a joke and has been since I started in this profession. One of the solutions would be to create a Mental Health Court. The County Jail normally will transfer an inmate to a psychiatric hospital with a probate order from a judge. The only problem is lack of bed space and the short term detention. Back in the late 1980’s, Ohio was just one of several state to shut down mental health detention facilities. We need to bring these back as part of a fix to the mental health problem. This could be advocated for with the creation of a Mental Health Court.
Classmate 2 Salina Spencer
My name is Salina Spencer. I live in Felton, Delaware. I am currently employed at Delaware State University as a Purchasing Coordinator. My future goal is to eventually go into Probation and Parole or Corrections. I live in Kent County Delaware which is fairly small. There are five court houses in the county. There are the following courthouses in Kent County: Kent County Courthouse, Family Court, Delaware Supreme Court, Justice of the Peace Court 7, and Justice of the Peace Court 14. The issue with the court system in Kent County is that there are so few courts that cases take forever to process, especially with Family Court. Superior Court handles criminal cases and is even more backed up that Family Court. Delaware only has one Superior Court in each of the 3 counties. There are not enough courts to process cases in a timely manner. A possible solution would be to open one or two more courthouses somewhere in the state to help with the back logged cases. For something as simple as divorce papers can take 90 days just to be processed.
