Although I read this article months ago, it still keeps haunting me and lurking around in the back of my mind. Shockingly, “public defenders’ offices in at least seven states are refusing to take on new cases or have sued to limit them” due to overwhelming workloads. It is no secret that the U.S. criminal justice system needs vast improvement, but this is absolutely outrageous. The fact that public defenders are so overworked means that they are able to dedicate less and less time to each individual case – and this ultimately interferes with the constitutional right to counsel for those who cannot afford it.
It’s completely unacceptable that public defenders are so overloaded with cases that each lawyer has to handle almost 500 felony cases per year (which has risen from about 367 in the past three years). And caseloads for lawyers who handle misdemeanour cases have risen to 2,225 from 1,380. In just three years!
Public defenders do some of the hardest work in our country. They defend the voiceless and the poor, and often have to fight for people they know are guilty – all in the pursuit of justice. Their jobs are difficult in themselves and often involve personal ethical battles and questions of morality. But in spite of this, public defenders are notoriously overworked and underpaid. They often work long hours for salaries of only $35,000 - $50,000. They do this out of pure personal belief, desire, and motivation to help others and promote justice.
But public defenders should be paid more and their caseloads should be decreased. Corporate lawyers easily earn a minimum of $150,000 starting salary after graduating from a good law school. If state governments begin to pay public defenders more, then public interest law as a profession will attract more talented young minds who might have otherwise entered corporate practice. The truth is, many law students don’t go to law school solely for the money – many of them genuinely want to practice law in court and work for the public interest. After all, it not only gives you incredible legal experience - often more substantive and hands-on, not to mention exciting, than the work on contracts done in corporate firms - but also allows you to join the fight for justice and impact the lives of the indigent. But motivated students are often deterred from this goal by the fear of ever-increasing student loans and the huge debt one incurs from attending law school. It’s not easy to pay back exorbitant law school loans (often over $110,000) while on a public defenders salary of $40,000. If this fear can be eradicated, then corporate law won’t become the default anymore – if one can make a decent living as a public defender, it becomes much easier for young lawyers to follow their dreams rather than sell their souls.
Also, research shows that indigents receive the best representation when they receive the assistance of a well-funded public defenders office. When case loads increase, lawyers are more likely to settle on a plea bargain without full information; they are less likely to go to trial since they don’t have the time, even if a trial is necessary to search out the truth. Courts are even threatening to delay trials or even drop charges against unrepresented defendants. Clearly, increasing case loads are becoming a threat to the very foundation of our democracy. These aren’t simply small issues of misdemeanors either; innocent people have in the past been condemned to death due to inadequate representation. There will be increasing impunity for actual offenders as caseloads increase.
It angers me that our legal system is deteriorating by the day, and such few measures are being taken to prevent this. Rather than increasing the budget of criminal defense offices, state governments are decreasing financing (in NYC, financing from the city and state decreased by $2.7 million this year). It shocks me that we can spend over $500 billion on the war on terror abroad - but refuse to work harder to fight crime at home. Our people live here, at home, in American states and cities - and the law is being flouted every day within our borders, harming our citizens daily. We need to fight this demon first. This is a priority, and it needs to be put higher up on the national to-do list — not banished to the lowly sidelines. Change will have to begin at home, with reform in our flailing criminal justice system, if we are to improve the state of our local communities, provide justice for all – and uphold the ideals of our Constitution.
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