Daily News | ‘We need help’: Krasner requests more money to staunch loss of prosecutors and ‘crushing’ caseloads
During Tuesday’s lengthy City Council budget hearing, District Attorney Larry Krasner detailed his office’s struggles in retaining prosecutors and the “crushing” caseloads they face, and requested more than $600,000 in additional funding to stem the issue.
Krasner is seeking a comparatively modest increase in his office’s city funding. If Council provides the increase, the Krasner has said other DA’s offices and law firms across the country are facing a similar problem of attrition, as staffers are being lured away by private firms that can offer three times a young prosecutors’ salary and provide the option to work from home.
Increasing staff, he said, could also help relieve the case backlog in courts caused by the pandemic shutdown. There are 32,114 open cases in Philadelphia’s courts — about 11% more than before the pandemic — and 670 of those are homicides, he said.That delay of cases involving serious crimes, like shootings, puts witnesses and victims — and the entire case itself — at risk, he said, and at a time when holding violent offenders accountable is critical, this cannot happen.
Krasner said his office does prosecute those crimes, but given the gun violence crisis, he said, police must focus their efforts on more serious issues. He also maintained that the city must invest in crime prevention, like public schools, and his office needs stronger police investigations and evidence so cases can be effectively tried.