Incoming Baldwin County District Attorney Bob Wilters has informed staff members for his new office that half of them will likely be let go by mid-January 2017.

According to reports, Wilters will only retain 20 of the current 44 staff members employed by District Attorney Hallie Dixon.

Wilters has said the decision was one he hated to have to come to, but budget cuts to the district attorney’s office over the last eight years have hit hard.

“There’s been a considerable amount of money cut over the last few years,” Wilters said. “We’ve seen a 51 percent reduction in funding from the state since 2008. We’re hoping we won’t have to make any further cuts.”

At a Baldwin County Young Republicans meeting back in April of this year, Wilters said there would likely be some changes in staff for the office once he takes over, including trying to bring in new lawyers.

“There will be some lawyers I want to bring in that have a lot of experience - I’m talking about 30 years or more,” Wilters said.

Wilters said at that time that it is a priority for him to make sure Baldwin County citizens who are seeking justice are able to find it.

“I want to know that if it’s your loved one that is a victim of a violent crime or horrendous crime, I want to have confidence that when I assign the case to a lawyer that they can do the job,” Wilters said. “It’s not that they can just try a case, but that they can win. That is everything. Doing a good job and losing is not enough – we have to win.”

Letters went out to the employees last week who would not survive the cuts.

“Budget cuts and other circumstances will necessitate cuts in staff and office expenses, therefore, regretfully I will not be able to have you on our team when we begin Jan. 17, 2017,” Wilters wrote in the letter.

Reaction on social media from some of the family members of fired staffers was swift and angry.

“Fortunately, my wife is one of the lucky ones that you will not be needing in your term, but what about the others that are single moms or dads for that matter,” one husband of a fired employee wrote. “What will they do? You’re not sending them to jail, you’re changing their lives. I pray that God will help all affected by this.”

Wilters did put in his letter that if circumstances changed regarding the office’s budget that “we may be able to do something different.”