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“It’s a system that encourages unethical behavior," said one public defense attorney. "...It’s most certainly not justice. No one feels like it’s justice.”
People accused in more than 100,000 misdemeanors each year go to jail without talking to a lawyer, a Lee Enterprises investigation found. The practice threatens people's constitutional right to counsel.
Public defense across the West suffers deep-rooted, decades-old problems. States have two solutions to consider: dole out more cash or shrink the criminal justice system.
Judges or elected officials in many counties nationwide have full oversight over public defense, a structure that can pressure public defenders to avoid making motions that may agitate a judge.
Across the West, public defense systems face crushing caseloads, historic underfunding, structural problems and staffing shortages, imperiling criminal defendants’ lives and denying them their constitutional right to counsel.