According to a congressional review, U.S. attorneys’ offices in Washington and Maryland are understaffed, hampering the government’s abilityto fight crime.
The District is short 40 assistant U.S. attorneys and Maryland has 30 unfilled positions, according to a nationwide investigation conducted over the past month by the minority offices of the Government Reform and the Judiciary committees.
As a result, federal prosecutors are forced to forego prosecutions in some cases and settle for plea bargains in others, the report said. U.S. attorney officials in D.C. said Monday that they had not seen the study and couldn’t comment on it.
A shortage in attorneys could seriously affect the system. Maryland, for example, is approved for 360 assistant U.S. attorneys and is shorthanded by 10 percent.
In general, an assistant U.S. attorney in misdemeanors might handle 150 cases at any given time, while one in homicide might have between 10 and 15, given the complexity of the cases.
In Virginia, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has adopted a policy charging defendants for photocopying, the report said. Federal prosecutors delivering documents to judges’ chambers in Virginia ask for envelopes to be returned so they can be reused.
Some shortages have forced U.S. attorneys to shift resources from civil enforcement and financial collection units that recover money owed to the federal government to instead focus on terrorism and high-profile crimes, the report said.
As a result, felonies such as fraud against the government are less likely to be prosecuted.
The money collected by U.S. attorney’s cases go to the U.S. Treasury, not to budgets of the federal prosecutors.
