Washington County is currently able to hold two jury trials a month as part of Iowa’s 8th Judicial District, but in 2022 that number will be cut in half.

County Attorney John Gish tells KCII that the district has announced that the number of allotted trials is shrinking from 24 to 12 next year, which he believes is largely due to a shortage of court reporters, those who compose transcripts of court proceedings. He feels it is an issue seen statewide, “It’s a really challenging job being a court reporter and a district court judge in our district, because they could go to any county within the district on any given day and they may not know until the day before. So it’s gotta be a difficult position.”

Gish emphasizes that this order, which excludes Wapello and Des Moines counties, will have a particular strain on the district’s two other most populous counties of Washington and Mahaska, “That means for the 370-plus indictable offenses I will only be able to take 12 of those to trial, which I think is a blow, it’s kind of a hindrance, a handicap for how we take cases on.”

Gish predicts that the trials scheduled next year will largely be for felony offenses rather than misdemeanors, and those that typically go to trial are for sexual abuse. This comes as the Iowa Judicial Branch has suspended jury trials for months at a time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which has left some criminal cases open for much longer.