“Money could be used towards other things”

Excerpt from Christopher, a defendant at the Hall of Justice in San Jose in winter 2022

Interviewer: Do you think that the state should spend more or less money on the courts?  

Christopher: [Pause] Umm, I mean, I wouldn't see a problem with us spending you know, more money, but the problem is that they're spending more money and cases are taking, you know, longer than usual to, to be resolved. Then I think that's where there's a problem because that money could be used to towards other things, you know, like preventing crime, gang bangers or, you know, dealing with the homeless population. So in a way, uhh, I agree but disagree. 

Interviewer: So in what ways do you think that the court should spend more money? Or the state should spend more money on the courts? 

Christopher: Well, basically on you know just, you know, speeding up the process of, you know, of of you know have of solving cases and stuff like that.  

Interviewer: Mhm, and then in which ways do you think the state should cut back spending on the courts?  

Christopher: Mm... Well...  

Interviewer: If you feel like that. 

Christopher: I mean right now, I currently do think that they should cut back on the funding because, I mean, uhh there's a lot of employees there working so. And not just not just the judges or, or you know, or the, the attorneys I’m talking about but the court system in general, you know, when you try to pay a ticket or try to get information and stuff like that, they always send you to a automated voice message system that doesn't even work. And basically, they just try to blame it on COVID, saying that, “Oh yeah, we're just slowing down because of COVID.” And, you know, and in a way that's, that's bullshit. You know, they they've got the same amount of employees. You know, I think I been going to court even before COVID started, so in fact I’ve been seeing an increase of employees, you know? So uh yes, I currently do think that they should cut back on spending because uh the performance of employees is very poor right now, and they're using COVID as an excuse.