Last Friday morning I took a couple of hours off to observe an innovation in the Dane County court system. I sat in on the Friday Court Settlement Conference, conducted on that day by Judge Maryann Sumi. The purpose of this weekly court is to move misdemeanor cases through the system quickly while preserving fairness to both the accused and the victim. The judges rotate this duty among themselves, and back each other up if things get too clogged in the courtroom that day (that is, they open another courtroom to keep things moving).
What I saw was a series of defendants–mostly those accused of driving after revocation, with a couple of retail theft cases–who had agreed to a settlement of their case in advance, and whose cases could be disposed of in about 10 minutes each. Some needed an interpreter, which lengthened those proceedings to around 15 minutes. Some of these folks would have been sitting around in jail longer if not for this laudable effort by the court system.
Judge Sumi had to ensure that each defendant was accorded due process, had agreed to the settlement of his own free will, and that the settlement fit the infraction. It was interesting that one of the defendants I observed, a very young man, made it clear that the 2 weeks of jail time had changed his attitude and I believed him when he talked of the changes he would make in his life. A couple of other defendants were allowed to enter the first offenders’ program, which rewards a guilty plea on a first offense with the chance to complete a training program in lieu of a conviction and sentence; if the program is not completed, the conviction is reinstated and a sentence is imposed.
One conclusion I draw from what I observed is that there are effective ways out there to speed the administration of justice, and that these ways not only save money but may even benefit the low-level offender. I’ll be following up with Judge Sumi to elicit her opinion about other recommendations that have been made to reduce the burden on the courts and jails in Dane County.
