Giving Compass' Take:
- Here are a series of questions to help assess the quality of the public defense system in your state and how to address potential pitfalls.
- What is the role of donors to strengthen or support public defense systems?
- Learn more about donors and the criminal justice system.
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One of the many reasons mass incarceration persists is because people too poor to afford their own lawyers are denied meaningful representation in court. This injustice happens because public defense systems — the systems tasked with providing attorneys to those in need — are severely underfunded and overburdened.
While every state and local public defense system is unique, we’ve identified nine urgent and common problems that plague public defense systems nationwide. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough current data for us to explain how every state stacks up on these issues, but we’ve done the next best thing: We’ve created a list of nine questions you can ask to assess where your state’s public defense system might need help, and we’ve highlighted helpful and detailed resources that can assist reform efforts.
Use these questions as a guide to learn whether your state public defense system is facing common problems and what can help to solve them:
- Does an independent agency oversee public defense in your state?
- Does your state shoulder the cost of public defense or leave the burden to local governments?
- Does your state increase public defense funding when demands on public defenders increase?
- Does the way attorneys are compensated create perverse incentives?
- Does the way attorneys are compensated create perverse incentives?
- Are there meaningful, enforceable workload limits for public defenders?
- Does the state give public defenders access to the information they need to do their jobs effectively?
- Is counsel appointed before a client’s very first court appearance, or is appointment delayed until later in the process?
- Does your public defense system provide holistic defense for clients who need other legal (or even non-legal) assistance?
Read the full article about public defenders by Ginger Jackson-Gleich and Wanda Bertram at Prison Policy Initiative.