By Annie Caulkins
When was the last time you thought about the local court system? Maybe it was when you had a traffic ticket and had to stand in line to talk to an assistant district attorney. Otherwise, it may be off your radar.
Along with mediators from the Carrboro-based Dispute Settlement Center, I have thought a lot about the court system recently because it’s in trouble.
The Dispute Settlement Center has helped ease the burden on the court system since 1978, relieving it of having to deal with thousands of messy interpersonal situations. That is, until last July, when state funding for mediation services in criminal district court was eliminated.
The court system is the least well-funded part of state government, and its financial standing has become worse. Currently the court system gets just 2.29 percent of the state’s general fund budget. Yet the court system is a safety valve designed to resolve disputes that may turn more destructive or violent.
What happens in criminal district court? Misdemeanor court handles assault charges, small-property crimes, harassment, unauthorized use of motor vehicles, trespassing, communicating threats and the like. Many of these cases involve people who know each other; friends, neighbors, co-workers or family members have a problem that one of them eventually takes to the magistrate, or the police are called.
Imagine these angry citizens losing hours of work time to wait in court to get resolution for these disputes. Think of our beautiful new Hillsborough courthouse handling hundreds of cases generated from our growing population.
Thirty-five years ago, a group of Orange County folks heard of a better way to handle some of these issues – using mediation, a way to get people to talk to each other directly rather than just appeal to the court.
The Dispute Settlement Center has grown to be the model mediation center for a state that came to use mediation in every level of the court system. North Carolina became known as a leader in mediation nationally.
According to Chief District Court Judge Joseph M. Buckner, “The Dispute Settlement Center helps families and neighbors resolve stressful matters which the courts are ill-equipped to manage.†After the funding was cut, another judge called the DSC office in frustration. “Why aren’t your mediators here – we shouldn’t be trying some of these cases,†he said.
The Orange County community had developed a way to ease court overcrowding while supporting people in communicating better. The program was efficient and used trained staff and volunteer mediators. While the adversarial process can deepen discord, mediation makes sense for these interpersonal cases.
But with budget cuts in Raleigh last summer, our mediators have not been able to serve court clients.
What is at stake here? In a recent tour of the new courthouse for elected officials and others, we saw crowds of nervous people awaiting help from the courts. We heard how the sheriff’s department is tasked with keeping this population and the courthouse workers safe. (While the state funds court personnel, the county maintains the facilities.) We saw overworked assistant district attorneys struggling to manage the caseload.
Can this safety valve continue to protect public safety?
We hope, with Orange County’s support, to be back in court relieving the system of cases better mediated than tried. It’s a homegrown solution.
Annie Caulkins is president of the board of directors of the Dispute Settlement Center.