AUGUSTA (AP) – Maine’s courthouses are safer, backlogs are shorter and more poor Mainers have access to lawyers, state Chief Justice Leigh Ingalls Saufley said in an annual address to the Legislature on Wednesday.

But there’s still a threat of violence in the courts, and while the backlog has been reduced it is still too long, the head of Maine’s court system said.

“In our courts with the highest volume of cases, there are as many as 200 family cases that have not been resolved within one year,” Saufley told a joint House-Senate session. “For families waiting for stability, that year may seem like a lifetime. We must do better.”

Saufley described the overall state of the courts as “struggling but improving” as it does its best with too few people and too little money.

“Maine is 50th in the country in per capita spending for the delivery of justice,” Saufley said.

“We run the Judicial Branch on approximately $15 million less than our frugal neighbor New Hampshire. We have fewer judges and less security than New Hampshire, which itself is 47th in the country,” she said.

Separating her speech into outlines of progress, problems and plans, Saufley said courthouses are “incrementally” safer. She cited a 2005 law that makes it a crime, “surprisingly for the first time, to bring a gun into a courthouse.”

More people are being screened as they enter courthouses, and the additional security kept four guns and 4,900 knives and sharp weapons from being carried into courts, she said.

Giving cases involving children and crimes of violence, sexual assault and other serious offenses top priority has helped to reduce a backlog of trials. Still, it is too long, she said.

In her fifth State of the Judiciary speech, Saufley listed new initiatives such as video arraignments and a mental health court, which provides for greater supervision and services for people who suffer from mental illness as well as substance abuse.

Consolidation of clerks’ offices in superior and district courts in nearly half of the state’s counties increases efficiency and saves money, Saufley said. And legal services in civil cases are being enhanced for those in need through the Campaign for Justice, which received $300,000 in contributions from lawyers and judges, she said.

The chief justice said one of the biggest problems in the courts is that “there are simply not enough people in the Judicial Branch to do the job we have been asked to do.”

Metal detectors shoved unused against the walls of some courts remain a visible example of work to be done making the courts more secure, said Saufley. She said more money is needed for drug treatment courts to help deal with a problem that is rising in prominence in Maine. Drug-related deaths reached an all-time high last year, and juvenile drug treatment courts “are in peril due to cuts in federal funding,” Saufley said.

The court system’s priorities hinge in large part on money. Saufley said she is requesting $368,000 to incrementally address a $3 million need to bolster court security.

Also being requested are four judges, two to deal with violence and children and two assigned to business and consumer cases. Funding for the four judges is requested in Gov. John Baldacci’s supplemental budget.

—

On the Net:

Maine Judicial System: http://www.courts.state.me.us/index.html