Judicial Leaders Work Until Last Minute to Save Public Safety Improvements from Fulton Budget Axe

Leaders of the Fulton County Georgia judicial system on Tuesday continued their effort to get county officials to restore $4.2 million cut from the system’s 2010 budget. The cuts include $2.4 million in operating costs and $1.8 million in staff vacancies for the Superior Court, Clerk of Superior Court, District Attorney, Public Defender, State, Probate and Juvenile courts, Solicitor General and Marshal’s office.

If these cuts are restored judicial system leaders told county officials they will be able to:

• Continue the Fast Track felony case management system that has cut the time it takes to complete non-violent property and drug cases to just 45 days.

• Continue the current number of participants in the county’s successful Drug and Mental Health Courts.

• Continue the highly effective, cost-saving pretrial supervision program that gets 97 percent of felony defendants to all court hearings without new charges.

• Continue a new intensive pretrial supervision program that reduced jail expenses by $3.5 million from April through December 2009.

• Prepare for a major anticipated increase in criminal cases from hundreds of new Atlanta Police Officers being hired through a federal COPS Grant.

• Drastically reduce the Fulton Jail population by July 1, 2010.

• Prepare a plan to increase revenues and collections from fines and fees.

• Prepare a plan to consolidate duplicative judicial system offices.

The Fulton justice system cannot control its incoming “inventory” of murder, rape, robbery and burglary cases so justice system leaders must be allowed to continue programs that out-produce the offending population to keep the county safe.

Judicial system leaders are working together to coordinate prevention, protection, restoration, correction and punishment efforts but cuts prevent them from keeping up with incoming cases, much less the increase anticipated from deploying additional Atlanta Police Officers.

Judicial leaders say restoring these funds will produce immediate savings by reducing the number of defendants in the county jail.

Failing to adequately fund the judicial system will swell the county’s jail population, greatly increasing the cost to taxpayers for housing, feeding and caring for pretrial defendants.

Key Points of the Judicial System Plan to enhance public safety and increase access to justice for families, children and businesses.

• Fast Track Felony Case Processing

• Pretrial Release Supervision

• Jail Population Reduction Plan

• Elimination of Duplicated Services

• Increased Fee and Fine Revenue

Keep The Courts Open

Funding cuts threaten public safety and access to the courts for businesses, families and children

Keep The Courts Open: Protect public safety for Fulton County Georgia residents and businesses who use our courts!
Sign the petition: http://bit.ly/KeepCourtsOpen

Think This Can't Happen?

The Fulton County Justice System is under enormous stress to process tens of thousands of criminal and civil cases with its current employees and judges.
Criminal prosecutions and civil litigation will be delayed even further if hundreds of Justice System employees and staff are laid off as a result of further budget cuts.
The county’s latest budget proposal calls for 10 percent across the board cuts in addition to prior reductions in state and county support for the Justice System. But that approach just doesn’t add up.

Here are some examples that show reducing or eliminating court programs that safely remove defendants from the overcrowded Fulton Jail will only add to the budget:

Jailing pretrial defendants: Daily Cost - $72 x 1,300 = $93,600.
Supervised pretrial release: Daily Cost - $5 x 1,300 = $  6,500.
Daily saving:                                                          $87,100.

Jailing pretrial defendants: Daily Cost - $72 x 500 =  $36,000.
Drug/Mental Health Court: Daily Cost -  $23 x    500 = $11,500.
Daily saving:                                                           $24,500.

What You Can Do:

Fulton County Juvenile Court Associate Judge Bradley Boyd to be Sworn in as Presiding Judge

Fulton County Juvenile Court Associate Judge Bradley Boyd will be sworn-in as the Presiding Judge at 2 p.m. on Friday, December 4, 2009, in Assembly Hall at the Fulton County Government Center located at 141 Pryor Street in Atlanta.

Superior Court Chief Judge Doris L. Downs will administer the oath of office to Boyd.

Boyd has served as an Associate Judge for Fulton County Juvenile Court since 2006. He is a native of Holmes County in Ohio. Boyd graduated from Goshen College in Goshen, IN., attended Indiana State University’s graduate school and graduated from the Woodrow Wilson College of Law.

Boyd’s experience with juvenile court issues is extensive. His work history includes service as Director of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Project. Boyd also performed in numerous past roles for the Fulton County Juvenile Court, including probation officer, intake attorney, referee, child advocate, Chief Probation Officer and Director of Management Planning.

In 1993, he joined the office of the Fulton County District Attorney as Senior Assistant District Attorney in Juvenile Court. Before becoming an Associate Judge, Boyd served as Deputy Director for the Juvenile Court Division of the office of the Fulton County Conflict Defender.

Boyd replaces Presiding Judge Sanford Jones who died in a May 15, 2009, plane crash.

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Superior Court names new Juvenile Court Judge

ATANTA - Fulton County Associate Juvenile Court Judge Bradley J. Boyd has been selected to be Presiding Judge of the Fulton Juvenile Court.

Judge Boyd, who has served as an Associate Judge for the Fulton Juvenile Court since 2006, fills the seat left open by the death of longtime Judge Sanford J. Jones.

He joins Chief Juvenile Court Judge Belinda E. Edwards and five Associate Judges at the state's largest Juvenile Court.

Judge Boyd, who began work at the Fulton Juvenile Court in 1973 as a probation officer, was chosen Wednesday by vote of the 19 Judges of the Superior Court of Fulton County. He was among five finalists for the position recommended by an independent selection committee.

Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Doris L. Downs praised Judge Boyd for having dedicated his life to the welfare of children.

"Brad Boyd is a truly dedicated public servant who has toiled in the trenches day after day and remains a spark of innovation that helps create systems that support the restoration of young lives," said Judge Downs. "We are truly fortunate to have Brad and all the other finalists for this position, each of whom would have been worthy choices."

Other finalists chosen from among 34 candidates for the Judgeship were attorneys: Jim Barfield, Angela Davis, Phillip Jackson and Juliette Scales.

Judge Boyd said the appointment is the opportunity of a lifetime and provides a challenge to continue the great work begun by Judge Jones and other predecessor judges of the Fulton Juvenile Court.

"In the years I have spent working in the Juvenile Court I have come to understand and appreciate the contributions and legacies of the Judges, other leaders in the courts, and the enormous contributions by hundreds of community members in building what is our Juvenile Court today," Judge Boyd said. "I am both honored and humbled that the Judges of the Superior Court have appointed me to help care for that legacy and carry it forward."

The Fulton County Juvenile Court is one of the oldest in the country. In 2008 there were 9,620 cases filed in the court, including 5,010 delinquency cases and 2,329 deprivation cases. The court conducted 23,848 hearings which were heard by six full time judges and several part time judges. The court employs a staff of 157.

Fulton County Juvenile Court Judge Finalists Announced

Five finalists have been selected for the position of a full time circuit-wide Judge of the Fulton County Juvenile Court.


Those chosen from among 33 candidates are: Jim Barfield, Brad Boyd, Angela Davis, Phillip Jackson and Juliette Scales.


Applications were solicited by publication of notice in accordance with O.C.G.A. § 15-11-18(d). The statutory qualifications for appointment to this position are established by O.C.G.A. § 15-11-18(e). Applications were due to the Court by August 30, 2009.


The finalists are scheduled to be interviewed Oct. 26, 2009 by the Judges of the Superior Court of Fulton County. The 19 elected Fulton Superior Court Judges will make the final selection.


The Court appointed an independent Commission to interview and recommend finalists for the position vacated earlier this year by the tragic death of Judge Sanford J. Jones in an aviation crash.


The new Juvenile Court Judge is expected to be named prior to the end of 2009.