
DATE: Friday, November 21, 1997             TAG: 9711210656

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN AND JON GLASS, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  137 lines

SHERIFF MOVING DEPUTIES FROM COURTS TO CITY JAIL

Sheriff Robert McCabe, under a U.S. Justice Department recommendation to increase security at the City Jail, plans to pull 14 of 31 deputies from the city's courtrooms, a move that judges say threatens the safety of people inside the courts.

McCabe said he asked the city to temporarily pay for more deputies in General District, Circuit, and Juvenile and Domestic Relations courts, but city officials told him that is the state's responsibility.

That leaves him no choice, McCabe said. He plans to begin moving the deputies from the courts to the jail the first week in December.

``I'm asking for temporary relief from the city,'' McCabe said. ``This is obviously a critical problem. I'm just asking for some help.''

McCabe insists that he is not putting the public at risk. ``I'm not going to let public safety be compromised either in the jails or the courts,'' he said.

City officials said the state, not the city, is responsible for providing the money to hire additional deputies. City officials said they aren't responsible for providing courthouse security or telling the sheriff how to run his office - but localities usually are required to provide some matching money to staff sheriffs' offices. ``We don't exercise any authority over how he employs his staff,'' Deputy City Manager Darlene Burcham said.

Of the 425 sworn deputies in the Sheriff's Department, 31 are assigned to 19 courtrooms. Once the 14 deputies are removed from the courts, the remaining 17 would be deployed throughout the courts. The two civil courtrooms would have no deputies, however.

In a letter to Assistant City Manager Sterling Cheatham, McCabe wrote in September:

``Although I am reluctant to remove deputies from court security positions because court security is also a state-mandated responsibility of my office, I feel as though I have no other choice but to make sure that proper security is maintained within the Norfolk City Jail.''

A study conducted in 1996 by the Justice Department concluded that the jail needed 38 more deputies, McCabe said. He said he agreed to follow the recommendation. He said he does not know where those deputies will come from. McCabe said he has asked the city to help him lobby the General Assembly to adopt new staffing standards.

After the City Council discussed the issue in a private session Tuesday, Mayor Paul D. Fraim wrote a letter to Norfolk's judges, stating the city's position that the issue is a matter for the sheriff and the state to resolve.

But Fraim said in the letter that the city would make it a priority in the next General Assembly session, which will begin in January, to request that the state provide more money to hire sheriff's deputies.

``This is not a fight the sheriff is trying to pick with the city or that the city is picking with the sheriff,'' he said in an interview Thursday. ``I just think he's in a crunch, and we're seen as the easy way out.''

McCabe said he does not want to appear threatening.

``I've been assured by the city they will work with me. . . ,'' McCabe said. ``It's not a battle with the city. It's a staffing problem.''

Fraim said the city would not be able to use police officers to replace the deputies in the courts: ``The city needs its police officers on the street, and we don't have the flexibility to staff the courthouses. This is a a clearly defined responsibility of the state under the law, and we're not going to let the state shift that burden to the city.''

Earlier this month, judges William P. Williams, William F. Rutherford and Lawrence C. Lawless, in a letter to McCabe, said it was their joint responsibility to provide adequate court security.

They wrote that removing deputies from the courts would pose ``an immediate threat to the safety of all who are required to attend court or to work in the courthouses.''

``We are extremely disappointed,'' Williams, the chief judge in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, said Thursday. ``It's not so much being critical of the sheriff. If he's not able . . . we have to get police protection over here.''

Fights, threats and other incidents occur daily within the narrow corridors of his courthouse, Williams said. About 400 people - most of whom who are involved in domestic cases - come through the court each day, he said.

``Most of them are mad about something,'' he said. ``It is not a secure facility.''

In a letter to Fraim last week, the juvenile court judges intensified their effort to ensure courthouse security. ``Sadly,'' the letter said, ``battered children and spouses might well be safer at home than in the hallways of our courthouse.''

With McCabe's plan, no deputies will be left to patrol the halls.

McCabe said he understands the judges' position, but he added that he hopes they see his. The alternative to transferring the deputies would be to leave a floor of the jail unoccupied, which leaves other portions overcrowded, he said.

In jails, the State Compensation Board requires one deputy for every three inmates up to jail capacity, then one for every five inmates over the intended capacity.

For the courts, the required number is one per courtroom in criminal cases. None is required in civil court. McCabe said his plan would still meet state requirements.

McCabe said the cost of hiring the 14 deputies would be about $200,000 a year. City officials, however, estimate the cost probably would be higher once benefits are figured in, and added that there's no money available anyway. The city manager's office recently ordered department heads to find places to cut spending because of projected revenue shortfalls this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The city manager's office has asked department heads to identify places to cut because of projected revenue shortfalls this fiscal year, which will end June 30.

City officials say other Virginia localities wrestle with the same problem when it comes to funding for the sheriff's office and the other four types of constitutional offices in the state, to which the localities are usually required to provide some matching funds.

It's a sore point with local officials, particularly when the state mandates more positions but doesn't provide full funding to fill them. ``It's just shifting the funding to us,'' Fraim said.

In the current fiscal year, the city is providing roughly $2 million to the sheriff's office for salaries and other operational expenses, according to budget documents.

McCabe places the blame for his predicament on an outdated state formula that outlines the number of deputies who need to be in the courts. For example, he said, the state does not provide funding for deputies in civil courts, where incidents are more prone to occur, McCabe said.

``People are more upset with some civil fines than being sent to jail for 20 years,'' he said.

Deputies previously were not assigned to Norfolk's civil courtrooms, but McCabe said he placed them there when he took office. Judges have since been pleased with having them there, he said.

``It's going to be thin,'' he said. ``but we're still going to provide security.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Sheriff's Deputy Lee Lamb works in General District Court. To

temporarily help pay for more deputies in the courts, Sheriff Robert

McCabe said he approached the city of Norfolk.

[Color Photos]

Robert McCabe

Paul Fraim

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Using an X-ray machine, Master Sheriff's Deputy Betty Cox checks the

bags of a person who is entering General District Court in Norfolk.