2024-01-29 05:59:02
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Release time 2024.01.29 05:58 Taipei time
Update time 2024.01.29 05:59 Taipei time
Tainan District Prosecutor’s Office prosecutor Ke Boling has been a prosecutor for 18 years and still works more than 12 hours a day. He said that the volume of judicial cases has increased dramatically in recent years, and prosecutors are almost overwhelmed by the caseload.Wen Photography
Daily working hours often start at 11 or 12 hours, but why do we rarely hear judges shouting regarding overwork? The answers from the judges or prosecutors we interviewed were almost unanimous: “We are a system of accountability.” If the work is not completed, it seems to become a personal problem. Some judicial officers also revealed that the remuneration of judicial officers is quite high among civil servants, and coupled with a sense of mission, it seems natural to do their best.
But fatigue builds up, and so does stress, until it explodes some unknown day. Chen Yuxiu, president of the Changhua District Court, observed, “I think psychological stress is the biggest cause of health damage, work pressure plus loneliness.” Loneliness? “Yes, judges are lonely. We handle cases independently (without interference), and each person has an office. If you don’t talk to others, you may only see your coworkers all day. We are also restricted from having too much contact with ordinary people. There is a lot of contact, and relatives and friends are probably gone. This creates a very special world, and without realizing it, you will easily become depressed, because humans are social animals.”
Chen Yuxiu also said that most judges are very serious. “They work very hard and are dedicated to their duties, but whenever something happens, people say that all judges are corrupt. In fact, the proportion of judges who are corrupt is extremely small.” “
When prosecutors are on duty in the field, they usually have to travel to various places to examine bodies. On this day, Cai Baida (right) discussed the matter with the forensic doctor.
Regarding depression, we asked Wu Chengxue, who had the idea of jumping off a building for a moment, if he had ever realized that he had a tendency to be depressed? “I was so busy that I didn’t have time to worry regarding whether I had depression or not. I had no time to think regarding other things.” So I didn’t go to the psychosomatic department at that time? “That takes a lot of time.”
There are too many cases. Wu Chengxue provided us with statistics. Taking the Taipei District Court in the past 10 years as an example, the total number of cases in 2013 was more than 27,000, and it will increase to more than 35,000 in 2023, an increase of 330% in 10 years. Overworked, they were so exhausted that they might hardly bear the burden. Among them, fraud cases have increased the most. Ten years ago, there were only more than 800 cases a year. In 2023, they have surged to more than 3,000 cases a year. Judge Bao Huizhong said: “We are almost overwhelmed by fraud cases!”
The judge is the back end, and the front end of the judicial process is the prosecutor. Only following the prosecutor investigates and decides to prosecute the case will it be sent to the court. The sudden increase in the number of cases in the courts must mean that the caseload in the front-end District Prosecutor’s Office is even more alarming.
Judging from the caseload in the past five years, statistics show that in 2019, the number of new cases received by Taiwan’s District Prosecutor’s Office throughout the year was approximately more than 560,000. By 2023, the number has skyrocketed to more than 830,000 cases a year. In just five years, the caseload increased by 47%.
There is a camp bed in the office of Tainan District Prosecutor’s Office prosecutor Cai Baida, where he can lie down when he is tired. He spoke quickly and rattled off a bunch of numbers: “When I first came to Tainan, I received regarding 50 new cases every month, but now there are more than 80. For example, I received 85 new cases last month. , deducting the 58 closed cases last month, equals to 17 more “open cases” last month, which accumulates every month. If I want to reduce the number of open cases, do I have to close more than 100 cases in one month? 85 pieces? Then I don’t even have to sleep.”
There are so many cases that they can never be closed, and new cases keep coming like a tsunami. Every criminal case requires first reading the file, then thinking, investigating, opening an investigation court, and so on repeatedly collecting evidence, and finally writing a non-prosecution or indictment. On average, more than 80 cases are handled every month, and even if there is no vacation, there are only 30 days in a month. Obviously, it is impossible for anyone to finish it.
“My current “open cases” have accumulated to 188.” Isn’t that a lot of pressure? “It’s extremely stressful, extremely stressful! Think regarding it, if a lawyer has 188 cases and has already made a fortune, just count each case as NT$50,000, and I can earn more than NT$9 million!” He added that he heard that in New Taipei , Taoyuan is even more terrifying, with the number of new cases received every month exceeding 100. “The cases in North City are more complex and high-profile, such as insider trading, various financial crimes or corruption, and New Taipei City has more social cases such as homicide or domestic violence.” Tainan is a farming county, but we don’t know why. Whenever a case occurs, it must be the biggest one. For example, the female student at Evergreen University and the 1988 shooting case attracted nationwide attention and put a lot of pressure on them.”
There is a camp bed in Cai Baida’s office, where you can lie down when you are too tired.
Cai Baida is in the “People’s Livelihood Team” and the types of cases he is responsible for include fraud cases. The District Prosecutor’s Office is divided into groups according to the nature of the cases, including the livelihood crime group, the anti-narcotics group, the major criminal case group, the black gold group, the maternal and child group (such as sexual assault, children and children, domestic violence), etc.
Not only have the number of fraud cases increased dramatically, but the techniques have also evolved year by year, such as criminal cash flow. In the early years, following the victim transferred the money to the head account of the fraud group, the fraud group would take the money away. Later, in order to avoid the police from tracking the cash flow, they would transfer the money one or two more times before taking it away. Now they often transfer the money 5, 6 times or more. “Each level in the middle is a head account. You have to go one level at a time.” Check, I don’t know how many firewalls he will set up, and a lot of time and energy are spent here. If the last one is not checked, the cash flow will not be traced. But usually when the last one is checked, he has already taken the money. It may even become a virtual currency. We can only confirm where the money ends, but we can’t recover it.”
It is so easy to transfer money. In the early years, victims still had to go to an ATM or go to a bank to transfer money. If the bank counter staff noticed something was wrong, they might remind them in time. Nowadays, most people switch to online banking. “The “agreed account” of online banking can transfer more than 1 million yuan in one or two seconds. Therefore, when fraud groups buy individual accounts, they will ask the other party to go to online banking and set up an agreed account. “
Cai Baida said that some cases have nothing to do with public welfare, but as long as the public files a complaint, prosecutors have to spend time and effort to deal with it.
Cai Baida goes to the office from 8:30 to 9:00 every day and gets off work from 5:30 to 6:00, which seems normal. “After I pick up the child, I have a meal and a bath, and put the child to bed around 9 o’clock. Then, there are three or four days a week. I have to ask for leave from my wife, ‘Honey, I have to work overtime, is it okay?’ Then I will come back.” The District Attorney’s Office can do it until 12 o’clock. I just pick a day on the weekend to come in and work overtime.” Sometimes when executing a project, the so-called “dawn attack”, we are busy from 6 o’clock in the morning to 12 o’clock in the evening. Doing the math, the daily working hours are more than 12 hours. Prosecutors and judges are entitled to overtime pay, but each has a monthly cap, which translates into only 1 to 2 hours of overtime pay per day. Anything extra can only be regarded as merit.
Ke Boling, who is also in the Tainan District Prosecutor’s Office, belongs to the Land and Resources Section, and his work includes investigating wasteland and wildlife conservation. In addition, there are so many fraud cases that almost every team has to share their work. Ke Boling has been a prosecutor for 18 years. “People say that work should become easier as you become more familiar with it, but when our colleagues discuss it, they generally feel more tired as they work. It’s strange. The main reason is that the caseload has increased sharply and everyone’s workload has changed. Very heavy.”
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