NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams on Tuesday (Nov. 1) asked the City Council to increase his office’s budget by at least $4.4 million in 2023.
During the first day of City Council hearings on Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s budget proposals, Williams claimed his office lacks the resources and prosecutors to properly deal with a backlog of cases stalled by pandemic-related court closures and the number of new cases coming in. He said he hopes to hire 17 assistant district attorneys, four victim-witness advocates and two trial assistants.
Williams also said he needs money for pay raises, to help recruit prosecutors to the office.
“Our staff continues to be grossly underpaid, especially given that they are shouldering the largest dockets in the state,” Williams said.
Williams, from his former perch on the City Council, championed budget cuts to the DA’s office in each of the final three years of predecessor Leon Cannizzaro’s administration. Williams also disbanded the office’s Major Offense Trials unit shortly after taking over in January 2021, firing or accepting resignations from nearly all the office’s most experienced homicide prosecutors.
But Tuesday, Williams told the council he needs the hefty budget increase in part to create a new unit of prosecutors dealing only with homicide cases, freeing up the rest of his staff for other violent crimes.
“I promise you, if we invest in this elite group of special prosecutors, then the next time I’m in front of this committee, we will not be the murder capital of this country,” Williams said.
Williams also asked the council to increase the city’s investment in juvenile crime intervention.
“A probation officer checks in with an adult once a month, making sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do,” Williams said. “That doesn’t work with juveniles. Kids need every week, every day. They need to know someone cares about them. That there’s a carrot, that there’s a stick, if they do or don’t do what is being asked of them.”
Williams also asked for more funding for the safety of victims and witnesses heading into court, so they won’t be discouraged about testifying. He also is asking for more funding for DNA testing to clear backlogged cases quicker.
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