Hutchinson ? Because of long delays in filing of charges against people accused of crimes in Reno County, a judge has been allowing many to go free after their arrests, admitting the bonds he sets often are “ridiculously low.”

The delay in filing charges has been as long as 18 months, and Steve Becker, the administrative judge for the Reno County District Court, began taking steps to deal with the situation last year.

There have been differing explanations for the delays, but a check of court records by The Hutchinson News shows that the office of Reno County Dist. Atty. Keith Schroeder has been bogged down by a huge increase in felony drug cases.

Becker admits there has been some improvement recently, but he says he won’t let people accused of crimes sit in the county jail without timely charges.

“The delays that I see from arrests to filings of charges is my primary motive in setting what I consider to be ridiculously low bonds in most cases,” said Becker.

“I take a fair amount of criticism on this subject, and it’s legitimate,” he said. “But the reason is this: If these folks aren’t released, they’re going to sit in jail an extremely long period of time without facing charges.

“I don’t find that appropriate. Jail is a place to serve a punishment, not to sit when you haven’t been convicted, and in many cases even charged, with a crime.”

Because of Becker’s policy, accused criminals, most eventually charged by the district attorney, are back on the street for months without any obligations to the court.

And likely to offend again, law enforcement officials said.

“It’s human nature and now you’re setting a person free with nothing against him,” said Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson. “It’s just like a kid taking a cookie out of a cookie jar: He’s going to do it again.

“And with the repeat rates that we have with prosecutions and sentencing, you have to think these people are going to go right back and do whatever they’ve done again.”

The delay in charging has come under fire from the bench, law enforcement and the Reno County defense bar.

Schroeder cited a spiraling caseload and a shortage of staff. A record 1,378 cases were filed in 2001 and 1,291 last year, compared with only 647 back in 1987.

More specifically, Schroeder blamed a huge increase in drug cases, which frequently involve multiple defendants, laborious lab testing and long court proceedings. Marijuana cases rose from 112 in 1998 to 270 last year, and meth cases are doubling annually, reaching 164 last year.

“We’ve got more cases, we’ve got higher numbers of jury trials and we’ve got more probation violation hearings,” Schroeder said.

“It leaves me having to triage cases, basically. I have to make calls on what cases must be done first and which have to wait.”

Schroeder’s request for funds to add three attorneys to his staff of six has been turned down by the County Commission.