Issue of the Month: 17th Circuit Court of Kent County

The Kent County 17th Circuit Court is, like all Michigan Circuit Courts, the trial court of general jurisdiction. It has jurisdiction in all civil matters over $25,000, all criminal cases where the offense is a serious misdemeanor or felony, all domestic relations cases, and all child abuse, neglect, and delinquency cases. There are currently 13 judges sitting on the 17th Circuit Court, and 225 FTEs employees doing the work of the Court. There are 10 Circuit Court judges, and 3 Family Court judges within the 17th Circuit Court. The work is divided organizationally between three areas: (1) Administration and Adjudication Services with 105 employees performing the administrative work of the Court and headed by a Court Administrator; (2) Circuit Court Services with 23 employees providing alternatives to incarceration for appropriate defendants; and (3) nearly 100 employees working in the Friend of the Court section managing the huge child support and parenting issues. This represents over $25 million of cost borne by county taxpayers — very little of which actually benefits any particular taxpayer personally. Our County does a fairly good job of developing alternatives to traditional justice and punishment system and relies on a broad range of alternatives for both adult and juvenile offenders so they don’t have to spend much time in jail. An additional function of the Circuit Court is the provision of the Office of Community Corrections which seeks to limit state prison commitments for County offenders, and prevents local jail overcrowding through a system of Jail Bed Allocations to each judge. The Circuit Court makes improvements every year in how it selects jurors and how they are treated during their time of duty. I’ll cover the Probate Court next month.