It's a tough time to be a public defender. Faced with the fiscal crisis and budget cuts, public defender offices are laying off attorneys, investigators and support staff. Vital community outreach programs are being gutted or discontinued. And in many places, public defender offices are "unavailable" to take new cases. This is forcing counties to find private attorneys willing to take indigent cases and the money to pay them.And this problem is not confined to California. In Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, and Miami, public defenders are unable to take new cases due to oppressive caseloads. In Maryland, the Public Defender was fired by her Board, in part for refusing to disband her capital defense unit and her juvenile defense program, so that those attorneys could be reassigned to trial work.
It sounds depressing, but there may be cause for optimism in all of this.
The public is learning that our justice system isn't perfect. It is learning that it is crucial that an accused be provided with competent legal representation at the trial level, so that miscarriages of justice can be avoided.
Over 200 innocent people have been freed from prisons across the country, thanks to the efforts of the Innocence Project and others. The national media is reporting that there is substantial evidence that Texas executed an innocent man. This fear of executing an innocent person has led several states to modify their death penalty laws and others have done away with the death penalty. And finally, members of the Supreme Court have said that the Constitution may bar the execution of an innocent defendant and remanded a case presenting that issue to a lower court for hearing.
The fiscal crisis has also reignited a dialogue on the efficacy of our corrections process. In these lean times, governments must decide how best to spend their dollars. Increasingly, the focus is on rehabilitation and not just "locking them up", since it costs far more to incarcerate people than it does to help them not offend or reoffend.
Defenders, public and private, have the information that can educate the public about the problems in the current system. We can help the legislators to find the right path for the future. But it will require us to work outside the courtroom in our communities to make it happen. If we seize this opportunity, we may be able to make significant changes in the criminal justice system.
In the end, it may be a very good time to be a public defender.
Sincerely,
Bart Sheela
President, California Public Defenders Association
