{"id":30978,"date":"2018-11-29T16:17:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T22:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=30978"},"modified":"2018-11-29T18:56:18","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T00:56:18","slug":"the-cost-of-prosecution-da-says-defendants-pay-too-much-of-oklahomas-criminal-justice-tab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/11\/29\/the-cost-of-prosecution-da-says-defendants-pay-too-much-of-oklahomas-criminal-justice-tab\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of prosecution: DA says defendants pay too much of Oklahoma\u2019s criminal justice tab"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_30979\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-30979\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/11\/Jason-Hicks-1920x1384.jpg\" alt=\"Jason Hicks standing in his Duncan office a stuffed boxing kangaroo and a photo of a murder victim are pictured behind him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/11\/Jason-Hicks-1920x1384.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/11\/Jason-Hicks-672x484.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/11\/Jason-Hicks-768x554.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/11\/Jason-Hicks-150x108.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/11\/Jason-Hicks-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/11\/Jason-Hicks-620x447.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/11\/Jason-Hicks-1498x1080.jpg 1498w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jason Hicks keeps mementos from past cases on a dresser in his office.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/537460572&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p><p>Jason Hicks stands in the back of his Duncan office behind a desk with a transparent top that frames photos of his wife and three children.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>There are more pictures behind Hicks \u2014 photos of people murdered in cases he worked as top prosecutor for Caddo, Grady, Jefferson and Stephens counties. One is a portrait of 14-year-old Alyssa Wiles. She was stabbed to death five years ago, and Hicks helped convict her teenaged ex-boyfriend of the crime.<\/p><p>Hicks also keeps a stuffed kangaroo with boxing gloves on its paws that came from the family of Christopher Lane, a college baseball player from Australia shot to death in 2013.<\/p><p>After explaining the photos, Hicks joked that prosecutors are human despite what some may think.<\/p><p>\u201cI think as the criminal justice reform debate has gone on there\u2019s been a little bit of demonization of prosecutors across the state,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cWe\u2019re not the ones that are looking at it going, \u2018OK, we\u2019re getting out of bed today to see how many people we can put in prisons.\u2019 That\u2019s not the way we operate.\u201d<\/p><p>District attorneys are not always the most popular law enforcement officials in Oklahoma.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Part of that could come from how they fund their offices \u2014 an arrangement some say is unethical.<\/p>\n<h3>How prosecutors raise money<\/h3><p>Every year, state funding leaves a big hole in Hicks\u2019 budget. This year, money appropriated by Oklahoma lawmakers will cover about 40 percent of his office\u2019s roughly $3.2 million budget.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Hicks can fill part of the gap with federal grants and other sources, most of the money comes from fees charged to criminal defendants.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>This funding situation is typical for Oklahoma\u2019s 27 district attorneys \u2014 and has been for years.<\/p><p>State funding covers less than half the cost of criminal prosecutions in courts across Oklahoma, state budget data show. District attorneys say this has turned local prosecutors into bill collectors, a strain prosecutors say affects attorney workloads and could lead to mistakes in the courtroom.<\/p><p>In Fiscal Year 2018, funding from the Legislature paid a little more than a quarter of district attorneys\u2019 operating expenses. Prosecutors covered nearly half of the expenses on their own, state budget data show.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Ethical questions<\/h3><p>Ryan Kiesel, the executive director of the ACLU of Oklahoma, said often defendants can\u2019t afford to pay the court fees they\u2019re charged to help fund the criminal justice system.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s a terrible way to fund our prosecutors\u2019 offices,\u201d he said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Kiesel said collecting money from defendants also puts prosecutors in a tough position.<\/p><p>\u201cWe create &#8230; a financial interest in the prosecutor\u2019s office to be able to stack these fees on top of individuals,\u201d Kiesel said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Even the appearance of a conflict of interest hurts Oklahoma\u2019s criminal justice system, he said, suggesting the best solution is for state dollars to cover more of the bill.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>Hicks, the DA, agrees.<\/p><p>One of Hicks\u2019 biggest funding streams comes from fees charged to people on probation. Some people don\u2019t pay, so before they come off probation, he has to decide whether to threaten them with a court hearing \u2014 and, potentially, prison.<\/p><p>\u201cIt forces us into a position that we either have to file an application to revoke, or we basically have to walk away from it,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p><p>Hicks said if he takes a probationer to court over money, his office works with them until they pay.<b><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p><p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want to send somebody to prison just because they\u2019re not making a payment,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a personal problem with that.\u201d<\/p><p>In the early \u201980s, Oklahoma lawmakers voted to fully fund local district attorneys with state money after a widespread county corruption scandal. Legislators were worried prosecutors might be reluctant to go after officials that funded their operations.<\/p><p>Years later, the funding was cut during oil slumps and other shortfalls. Lawmakers replaced that money with fees collected from defendants.<\/p>\n<h3>Costs to prosecutors<\/h3><p>As a result, Hicks said he spends a lot of time worrying about his budget and can\u2019t afford to hire the attorneys and staff he needs. That means overworked employees and experienced attorneys who leave for better-paying jobs \u2014 a talent drain that can lead to errors.<\/p><p>\u201cOne of the things is basically overvaluing your case,\u201d Hicks said, explaining how for some defendants an inexperienced prosecutor might recommend a prison sentence when a more experienced prosecutor would push for probation.<\/p><p>Judges, juries and even defense attorneys play a role in sentencing, but the process usually starts with prosecutors.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p>\u201cThose are things that come with experience \u2014 knowing which offenders you can take a risk on,\u201d Hicks said.<b><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p><p>Hicks said his staff can\u2019t afford to give some cases the time they deserve. Sometimes they can\u2019t spend enough time working with crime victims or on programs designed to steer people away from prison, he said.<\/p>\n<h3>Where will the money come from?<\/h3><p>Hicks said it\u2019s appropriate for defendants to shoulder some of the cost of their alleged crimes, but he thinks the state is making them pay too much. Hicks said prosecutors should be focusing on criminal cases \u2014 not fund-raising.<\/p><p>\u201cI\u2019m not someone who is going to advocate raising taxes by any stretch of the imagination,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we\u2019ve got to have that money, and that money has to come from somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Funding for district attorneys&#8217; offices is hard to come by. For years, the state has paid less than half the bill, leaving DAs to collect the rest from other sources like the federal government and criminal defendants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":30979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"page-noFeature.php","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[989,991,990,778,987,988],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30978"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30989,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30978\/revisions\/30989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}