Nationally,
most public defender’s offices do not have enough lawyers to appropriately
handle the caseload. In 2011 the Justice
Policy Institute found that only 27% of county-based and 21% of state-based
public defender’s offices had enough lawyers for the offices’ caseload. The Pew
Charitable Trusts citied the institute’s findings in a recent article discussing
how the problem arose and its unintended consequences.
How did
this problem arise? According to a National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers representative the article
cited, state and local governments have been cutting funds for public defender
offices while legislatures have simultaneously elevated many infractions from
civil to criminal penalties.
The
unintended consequences of these trends can be seen in Louisiana where the
Public Defender Board has been sued for putting new clients on a waiting list due
to a shortage of attorneys. The unintended consequences can also be seen in
Missouri, where, according to the article, the state’s public defenders spend
nine hours on certain felony cases that require 47 hours of work. The U.S. Department of Justice noted this
trend, finding that because of the size of the public defender’s caseloads,
defendants in St. Louis County, Missouri, were experiencing an unconstitutional
denial of due process.
The article
describes what appears to be a vicious cycle in which an unrepresented defendant
charged with a misdemeanor, such as petty theft or marijuana possession, may
end up taking a disadvantageous plea deal that results in a fine he or she
cannot afford to pay, an outcome that causes him or her to end up back in
jail. The costs associated with housing
people in the correctional system and the negative impact conviction has on a
person’s employability are also negative outcomes of a stretched public defense
system.
The
Miami-Dade County Public Defender’s Office is attempting to address this crisis
by making attorneys available to monitor misdemeanor cases, but the
effectiveness of this approach is still being studied, per the article.
The full
article is available below:
http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/04/11/right-to-an-attorney-not-always-in-some-states
