EDWARDSVILLE - Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine finds his office in what he describes “a very unusual situation” because of a COVID-19 backlog in cases.
Haine has discussed with the Madison County Board a proposal to raise his budget by about 22 percent to cover the present cases backlog and about $790,000 would come from the Madison County General Fund. The state's attorney suggests the remainder of funds for the increase would come from The American Rescue Plan Act funds. The total proposal would be between $1.3 million and $1.6 million.
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“We usually have about 4,000 individuals charged with felonies per year, and we are up about 40 percent over the last 10 years,” he said. “We have been eating up more and more of the office’s budget with felony prosecutions. Now we have 6,000 outstanding felonies that we need to dispose of. It is an incredible crunch. We have 500 felonies to assigned to about 15 prosecutors and four of them are violent crime prosecutors.”
Haine said he wants to make sure he has the ability to give justice to crime victims.
“I don’t want to soft-pedal these cases,” he said. “I don’t think citizens of Madison County want me to do that either. The huge backlog of cases was caused by not having any trials over a year or even longer because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This was just an act of God, and we have to take a totally unusual approach to get over that hump.”
The state’s attorney said he is working with the Madison County Board on a way to resolve the situation. Haine said the auditor has been incredibly helpful to analyze the true costs associated with the cases as he presents information to the board in regard to the budget. He said he will continue to use the treasurer's analysis as the budget discussions continue with the board.
Haine is also concerned with the Illinois Supreme Court ruling where the right for a speedy trial returns on October 1, 2021. The rules include suspending speedy trial deadlines, or the number of days after which defendants may demand prosecutors bring them to trial or charges are dropped. Without added budget funds and increased prosecution staff, the speedy trial change would be very detrimental to proper justice in the various backlog of court cases.
Haine requested more time to talk with the board and formulate a proper plan to conquer the significant COVID-19 trial backlog and budget issue. In June 2021, Haine announced the Cross-River Crime Task Force. Haine said he is very pleased with the progress of the task force. The new program is using proactive patrols using License Plate Reader technology and also analyzing current and historical data to identify real-time crime patterns.
“The Cross-River Crime Task Force will also help with the use of LPRs to identify individuals with outstanding warrants or vehicles known to be involved in criminal activity,” Haine said.
The citizens expect strong justice and Haine said that is part of the platform he ran on to be elected for the state’s attorney position.
“I believe in pursuing justice, but also balanced with second chances for first-time offenders and low-level offenders,” Haine said. “However, violent crime needs to be reduced in Madison County. I think we are all in agreement about that.
“We have to be responsible with taxpayer dollars, but we have to make sure to have a court system where the police departments can enforce the laws and put the individuals in prison when convicted."
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