Is New Orleans Juvenile Court Bloated?

N.O. Juvenile Court judges, coroner tell council they need more money, but:

Orleans Parish Juvenile Court has long been in the mayor’s cross-hairs. 

It has six judges, but a 2010 caseload analysis by the state Supreme Court found that the city has an overall abundance of judges, and that Juvenile Court is the most bloated of all: One juvenile judge is all the city needs, the study found. 

That finding was echoed by a report this fall by the Bureau of Governmental Research, which also put the proper number of juvenile judges at one. 

Landrieu pushed a bill in the Legislature that would have reduced the court from six judges to four. He said the move would redirect $827,000 a year from judicial salaries, benefits and support staff to youth outreach services. 

The bill was considered a sure bet to pass — so sure that the administration designed a new courthouse, now under construction, with only four courtrooms. The bill failed to pass, and the six judgeships remain.

 Meanwhile it looks as though New Orleans's "Evening Reporting Center" program that supervised a handful of children from the end of the school day to 9 p.m. and cost $110,000. Was a new, smaller courtroom really necessary?