Supreme Court proposes expanded use of specialty courts

The Nevada Supreme Court wants to give judges more discretion in providing alternative sentencing in specialty courts.

The bill draft request is among 10 submitted to the Legislative Counsel Bureau by the court.

"It would give specialty court judges another carrot and stick to encourage successful completion of programs," said Justice Jim Hardesty, who will become chief justice in January and present the court's proposals to the 2009 Legislature.

"There can be no question at this point these programs are enormously successful," he said. "The recidivism rate is extremely low. You are returning people to society successfully."

The plan would expand eligibility for specialty court programs including drug court to people charged with crimes of violence. And it would remove from the law the requirement that prosecutors approve specialty court admissions.

Judges supporting the specialty courts testified in the 2007 Legislature that the approval requirement has been a stumbling block because some prosecutors are unwilling to approve many of the people judges believe could most benefit from the programs.

The plan would also give judges discretion to put people charged with drug trafficking, those with multiple convictions, probationers and parolees into those programs.

Those who committed crimes against children and sex offenders would still be ineligible.

And the plan would permit judges to dismiss the underlying criminal charges for those who complete their programming, set aside related convictions and seal the cases.

"If they earned a clean slate, then we ought to consider giving them one," said Hardesty.

He said the law would not require judges grant any of those things. It would all be decided on a case-by-case basis.

One proposal expected to draw some debate is the bill to create a funding formula for regional juvenile detention facilities. Hardesty said that primarily means the China Spring juvenile center in Douglas County and its counterpart in Las Vegas.

"The objective is to stabilize budgeting for those youth camps," he said.

Another bill would fix a problem with the law expanding treatment programs for DUI and drug offenders. The legislation was designed to provide those programs in rural areas, but Hardesty said it didn't include funding. As a result, those programs are mandated in rural areas which can't afford them.

The amendment would remove the mandatory language and leave it to the discretion of county and judicial officials depending on available funding.

Hardesty said the legislation reinstating the senior judges program is vital to the courts and the state. The senior judges program, which has retired judges fill in on cases when a sitting judge is recused or disqualified from a case, sunsets this year unless renewed.

He said the program is very cost effective because senior judges are assigned only as needed and serve without the added expense of facilities or court staff. In 2008, he said those judges did 12,387 hours of work.

The plan would also expand eligibility to all former judges eligible to retire.

Currently, only judges who have retired can be assigned as senior judges.

And the court wants to exempt the courts from the open records law currently in statute.

Hardesty said that isn't because the courts want to close off access to records. He pointed out the Supreme Court last year issued orders prohibiting district courts from completely closing case files.

He said the problem is the court has to be able to make sure confidential information including identifying information about domestic violence victims, social security numbers and other data can't be obtained by the wrong people.

"No one in the process is attempting to preclude public access to court files that are not otherwise subject to confidentiality orders," he said.

Other proposals would expand the use of referees and hearing masters in justice courts and allow justice court records to be tape recorded instead of requiring court reporters for witness testimony.

Finally, the court is proposing enactment of the Judicial branch Security Act which would stiffen penalties for threatening some one involved in the judicial process, include court staff and officers among those protected and grant funding for increased court security.

Hardesty said the legislation was proposed by Washoe District Judge Chuck Weller, who was shot in the chest by Darren Mack, who is now in prison for that crime and the murder of his estranged wife.

The bills are among more than 1,000 expected to be presented to the 2009 Legislature in February.

- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.