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Story Archives: Clark elaborates on reforms at 4th JDC


Clark elaborates on reforms at 4th JDC
by Scott Rogers - posted Friday, May 8th, 2009 @ 1:10 pmE-mail Story E-mail Story | Print Story Print Story 
Fourth Judicial District Court judges will continue to work with various agencies to address the case overload in the court system.

Judge Marcus Clark says the court has worked with agencies in the past to "come up with solutions to overcome some very difficult issues."

Clark spoke Thursday at Monroe Rotary Club about recent changes at Fourth Judicial District Court. He said the changes made the court more efficient.

"Just last week, Supreme Court Chief Justice Kitty Kimball spoke to the Legislature about addressing the case overload in our court system," Clark said. "She mentioned that some of the lower courts have already launched an effort to handle this mounting problem. The Fourth Judicial District Court is one of those courts working to address that problem."

Clark discussed the personal impact caused by case overload when some of his cases fell behind schedule during his first term as a judge. He explained that all of these cases were addressed and properly disposed of, but because of the delay he was sanctioned.

Clark said he accepted the sanction but made it his personal responsibility to head up the effort to address the issue to ensure that it would not happen again to him or to any other judges on the Fourth Judicial District Court bench.

Clark also worked with other judges to develop a court technology committee. The committee now works with other parish officials to help improve the sharing of information to provide a better method of tracking cases, Clark said.

"We started using video conferencing for arraignments which greatly reduced the number of inmates who needed to be transported by the sheriff's office to the courthouse," Clark said. "This not only moves cases through the system more quickly, but it reduced the overall cost of these cases."

The court also added the digital recording of cases to the system.

"I believe our judges have made great strides to keep up with our cases," Clark added.

To handle the increasing amount of cases coming before the judges, Clark petitioned the Legislature to add two more judges to the Fourth Judicial District Court.

He said a 2005 review by the Supreme Court found the Fourth Judicial District Court entertained 51,494 filings. By comparison, the 19th Judicial District Court of East Baton Rouge received 49,745.

"Those numbers showed we handled more filings than the parish that houses our state capitol," Clark said.

Caddo Parish received more than 7,000 criminal filings that year, Clark said.

"And, they had 11 judges handling those cases," he said. "We were dealing with nine judges, and we had 10,605 criminal filings. Those numbers showed we needed approximately four additional judges."

The Legislature created two new judgeships for Fourth Judicial District Court.

"They took office Jan. 1 of this year and they are helping us and they are making a difference," Clark said.

Clark said one of the goals of the judges is to reduce the number of pretrial detainees housed at the Ouachita Correctional Center.

"We have worked hard to make them a priority and move those cases quickly," Clark said. "That reduces the cost to the police jury and saves them millions of dollars."

The court also implemented a number of programs to rehabilitate prisoners, including adult drug court, juvenile drug court and boot camp programs.

"These programs are not only to hold an individual accountable and keep the public safe, but also to offer hope to these individuals and give them the opportunity to become productive citizens," Clark explained. "This, in turn, would reduce the case load and save the taxpayers a lot of money."

Clark recently announced he will be a candidate for the state Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justice Chet Traylor of Winnsboro is retiring from the court, effective May 31.

Clark will be a candidate in the October primary election to fill Traylor's unexpired term. Clark is the only announced candidate in the race who has judicial experience.
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