Public Defender Crisis Leaves THOUSANDS Languishing In Jail (VIDEO)

A crisis in the recruitment and resources of public defenders across the U.S. has created near-endless workloads and left thousands of people serving unwarranted jail time. Many remain behind bars simply because they are unable to pay court costs, and public defenders don’t have time to plead effectively on their behalf.

The Guardian newspaper cites a number of glaring examples:

  • A young, pregnant woman in Kentucky, found guilty of minor fraud charges in April, had her bail set at $40,000. With no public defender available to argue for a lower bond, she is still in jail.
  • An illiterate man in Missouri was charged with vehicular assault in August and remains on remand until a defender can be found to speak for him.
  • A group of 30 defendants in Louisiana entered an ill-advised ‘mass plea’ of guilty, after receiving a total of 20 seconds of legal advice.

The New York Times recently ran a similar story about a 16-year-old in Florida who complied fully with all the terms of his sentence, including a curfew and community service, but remained on probation for a further 14 months as his family could not raise the $200 court costs.

As reported by Liberal America, children from poor backgrounds are particularly affected. As a result, the concept of the debtors’ prison – which was abolished in the U.S. as long ago as 1833 and declared unconstitutional in 1983 – has returned by stealth, and is now very much a reality.

In theory, the public defender is the person who should ensure fair representation for people who cannot afford to pay for legal counsel, saving them from undue and unnecessary punishment. This was enshrined by law in 1963.

But with the number of people in prison quadrupling since then, with 90 percent of defendants classed as “indigents” who should qualify for free legal advice, and with public defender numbers and budgets tumbling nationwide, the system can be safely described as broken.

Ed Monahan, Kentucky’s public advocate and chief defender, told the Guardian:

“We’re in crisis in Kentucky and in America. Public defenders are the pack mules of the system. Pack mules can carry a lot. But you put one more box on an overburdened mule, and it won’t be able to function.”

Reliable, recent statistics are almost impossible to collate, because every state operates its own legal system. But in Monahan’s Kentucky, for instance, it is estimated that the public defenders’ workload was 54 percent higher than the national recommended standard, yet their financing accounts for less than 0.5 percent of the state budget.

In Missouri, the defenders’ office has lost 30 staff due to budget cuts and the remaining lawyers have to juggle as many as 150 cases each at any one time. Yet Governor Jay Nixon has consistently blocked any increases in expenditure. In June this year, he slashed $3.5 million from a requested $4.5 million allocation for new staff.

Watch this first-hand account of the dire situation in New Orleans, where public defenders are being forced to refuse new cases.

Featured image: www.weisspaarz.com/ via Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.