District Attorney Asks Local Governments for More Money Based on Where Crime is Committed

Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Hays Webb is asking three local governments to substantially increase their funding of his office, or risk a collapse in the already clogged criminal justice system here.

His proposed solution is to divvy up the deficit based on where violent crime is being committed.

As the Thread reported in April, the DA's office is perpetually underfunded by the state of Alabama, leaving Webb to make up the difference through two means: charging and collecting court costs, and requesting voluntary contributions from local governments.

He was in front of the Tuscaloosa City Council to do so again on Wednesday morning during a work session ahead of votes on Mayor Maddox's proposed budgets for the 2026 Fiscal Year - read more on that here. 

"We remain annually in dire straits," Webb said. "We are not Chicken Little out here ringing false alarm bells."

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The basics are this: Circuit Court is where all felony cases are prosecuted after an arrest is made and charges are filed. It's also where the lion's share of local civil lawsuits are adjudicated.

Webb said ideally, his office would employ at least eight prosecutors, two for each of the four circuit court judgeships in Tuscaloosa County. Instead, he's currently working with just five, and one is expected to leave in December.

Already, understaffing has led to a backlog of between 800 and 1,200 felony cases in each of the four circuit courts, and any prosecutor's absence can also lead to the cancellation of entire 'jury weeks,' further clogging the system with unresolved criminal and civil cases alike.

A tangible result is seeing violent offenders released on bond, sometimes for years at a time, before they are convicted and sentenced. Other innocent suspects have charges hanging over their heads for years before they are acquitted. The Tuscaloosa County Jail is perpetually overcrowded, and civil lawsuits are often pushed aside so that juries can hear criminal cases.

"The past two years, we've had cancelled jury weeks because we didn't have enough lawyers to go to court and handle the cases, which is a real issue and not just in the criminal realm," Webb said. "Of the 22 jury weeks every year, essentially all of them are dedicated to criminal cases, so when you've got friends in the business community who say 'Hey, we've got this lawsuit that's been pending for seven years,' it's because there are 4,000 criminal cases pending ahead of it."

Webb told the council that the DA's office needs a total of $3.9 million in funding to hire a handful of attorneys, restore its staffing to eight prosecutors, and make ends meet next year. He said there's no fat to trim, and almost 90 percent of his total budget is for salary costs. Any shortfall could mean not making payroll and significantly impact their ability to prosecute criminal cases, Webb said.

The DA's office is technically a state office. Still, Webb said the Alabama Office of Prosecution Services will provide Tuscaloosa County a paltry $1.1 million this fiscal year - less than a third of what they need to operate. He projects raising another $1.5 million from court costs.

That leaves a $1.3 million hole in his budget, and Webb said that money must come from the cities of Tuscaloosa and Northport and the Tuscaloosa County Commission.

Last year, the governments gave the DA's office a total of $815,000. The county provided $650,000, Tuscaloosa contributed $100,000, and Northport gave $65,000.

Even if the governments agree to match those 2025 amounts - and they are not legally bound to do so! - Webb says they also need to increase their combined funding to make up the $500,000 deficit.

"The locals absolutely, positively must make this up or we will not make it through the next fiscal year," Webb told the council.

His proposed solution is for the three governments to split the remaining half-million-dollar deficit based on where violent crimes are most committed.

He shared 2024 data, which indicated that 59 percent of violent crime felony charges originated in the city of Tuscaloosa, 30 percent came from towns in the county, and approximately 8 percent came from Northport.

On those grounds, he asked the city council to address about 60 percent of the $500,000 shortfall and increase their funding by $295,000 - that's in addition to recommitting to the $100,000 they provided last year.

He'll also request an additional $150,000 from the county and Northport for the remaining $40,000.

Each of the three governments will have to OK these requests, or the DA's office will be left underfunded and risk not making payroll.

"Y'all can go above and beyond, and the county can go above and beyond, and guess what?" Webb said. "If Northport doesn't do their part, we're still not going to have sufficient funding."

For more coverage of the conversation around the DA's office funding and other issues affecting West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.