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Anchorage Department of Law adds prosecutors, uses contractors to reduce backlog; vows new benchmarks
Summary
The Department of Law told the committee it has hired several experienced prosecutors and is contracting for targeted work to clear an accumulation of unresolved cases; the office plans to produce cleaner data to track speedy-trial timelines and other performance metrics.
The Department of Law provided a progress update to the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Feb. 5, describing staffing increases and contractor support intended to clear a backlog of unresolved criminal cases.
A Department of Law representative identified as Wheeler said the office had been "drowning" on arrival last October but now is "treading water" and beginning to "swim in one direction" after hiring four experienced prosecutors (three starting in February and one in March) and using contractors to triage old files and handle hearings. Contractors include a retired municipal prosecutor who covers pretrial and trial conferences and a retired judge training newer attorneys on therapeutic-court roles. Wheeler said the contracts help reduce weekly six-hour court burdens that previously diverted staff from screening cases.
Wheeler and committee members said one key benchmark will be compliance with speedy-trial timelines (120 days), which had been a problem; the office is undertaking a data-cleanup project to load historic case files into the case-management system and expects that improved data will allow more meaningful performance measures such as time-to-resolution, trial outcomes and dismissal rates. The Department of Law said contractors’ current contracts run through the end of the year and that funding amendments may be requested to extend contract support into June while new staff become fully productive.
Assembly members asked what metrics the Assembly should track; Wheeler suggested time-to-trial, case resolutions and staffing turnover. No formal actions were taken at the Feb. 5 meeting; the Department of Law said it will return with updated metrics as data clean-up is completed.
