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Cutbacks in government spending are beginning to have an effect on prosecutors' attempts to try cases and target specific crime risks in Prince George's County, said State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey.

In a Nov. 19 interview, Ivey said he worries that reduced spending, including a county decision to force employees to take 10 days of unpaid leave, may affect his office's ability to get pleas and convictions for crimes in Prince George's County.

The first victim is the office's more innovative intervention programs that try to catch potential criminals and deter them from committing future crimes.

"Re-entry is our biggest disappointment," said Ivey, mentioning his office's effort to provide job placement and training for people recently released from jail and prison.

The three-year, $180,000 federal grant for the program has petered out, Ivey said.

"Those sorts of efforts really get cut off at the knees by the current economic scenario," he said.

Staff size also limits the office's effectiveness, Ivey said.

A spokesman for Ivey's office said they are investigating other ways to fund the program in the future, but said it was too early to give specifics.

Though Prince George's is a suburban county, high crime rates in areas along the Washington, D.C., border produce a caseload that rivals a major urban city. Last year, the office's 75 lawyers handled 30,000 cases, reviewed 5,000 others that did not go to court and also prosecuted 31,000 traffic cases — a much higher load than in the nation's capital.

"The district is a federally funded entity. They have three or four times the staff," Ivey said. "Their homicide unit is about half the size of my whole office."

For years, the county state's attorney's office functioned under a state-mandated cap on prosecutors. That cap was lifted in the last General Assembly session, allowing the county executive to hire more prosecutors without state approval.

"Unfortunately, the same year we had the cap lifted, we hit this recession," Ivey said.

Current staff in the prosecutors' office are also struggling due to the county's recent furloughs. In an effort to cut $56 million in lost revenue, the Prince George's County Council this fall ordered all employees to take up to 10 days of unpaid leave. The cut was opposed by labor unions and employees, who said it amounted to the loss of two week's pay for the year.

"That's difficult for people," said Ivey. "There's no question about that. It's a pay cut, basically, for everybody across the board. There's a lot of folks who were not livin' large before the furloughs and this makes it even tougher for them."

County spokesman James Keary said the economic downturn is an issue across the government, but stressed that the county hasn't had setbacks in meeting needs.

"Nationwide, there's a tremendous financial crisis," said Keary, who said county officials have just begun calculating their budgets for next year. "What the county has squeezed out in this, through steps like the furloughs, it hasn't impacted any services as far as I know."

Ivey declined to comment on a recent complaint filed by a union for sheriff's deputies that argued the county is not adequately staffing security at the county courthouse to handle court cases and potential security problems in courthouse halls. But he did say that he shared concerns about safety and coverage at the Upper Marlboro facility.

"I know that jurors have concerns," he said. "There's stuff going on in the hallway [of the court] that is problematic. We've had some scenarios that have bordered on witness intimidation. If there could be a presence that would help with that, that would be good, too."

Ivey, who has headed the state's attorney's office since 2002, said crime reduction has been effective in Prince George's County during his tenure. Police department statistics have tracked a 20 percent overall drop in violent crime over the same period.

Prosecutors teamed up with federal attorneys early on to combat gang crime, leading to an ongoing racketeering case against members of the MS-13 gang.

The initiative and others have changed the motivations and outbreaks of crime, especially homicides, Ivey said.

"Our homicides have shifted from the vast majority of them being turf disputes or drug deals gone bad to the growing percentage of cases where it's just two guys who got mad at each other," he said. "Everybody's got a weapon, so a fist fight turns into a gun fight and somebody ends up dead. And as we've seen in some recent cases, there's an innocent bystander.

Ivey said he hopes to get around state and county limitations in the future by teaming his office, local police and municipal departments with the federal law enforcement officials.

"Increasing the number of joint task forces, you know, beefing them up, I think would be a good way to go," he said.

The prosecutor said he also holds hope that the new Obama administration will bring more resources to the county. The president elect's choice for Attorney General, Eric Holder, was Ivey's former supervisor.

"It's a great [opportunity] for friendship, well, maybe partnership would be the better word," Ivey said. "We have a full range of challenges and strengths that would make it ideal to try [a pilot program] out."

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.