This week: Wisconsin budget controversy extends to the public interest community; NYT says don’t slash LSC funding; is “holistic defense” the future of indigent defense?; worries about government funding cuts for a Pennsylvania legal services program; the same worries are troubling California-based LSC grantees; and Uncle Sam wants to improve his intern hiring processes. 

• 3.10.11 – are you tired of news about acrimony surrounding the Wisconsin budget?  TOO BAD!   Not noticed amidst the recent political kerfuffle is the impact that the Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget would have on Badger State public interest lawyers.  Short version: very bad for civil legal services, maybe good for defenders, and good for some prosecutors.
  • a Wisconsin Law Journal blog post highlights the danger faced by the Wisconsin legal services community: “The current budget provides approximately $5 million for civil legal services for the poor….  The proposed cut would eliminate 75 percent of the grant money annually issued to legal service providers….  Legal Action of Wisconsin would suffer the biggest hit, losing almost $1.3 million in grant money for each of the next two years.”  Legal Action’s executive director stated that this could lead to cutting over 40% of the staff.  And they would not face adversity alone: “Ten other legal service providers including Wisconsin Judicare Inc., Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee and Disability Rights Wisconsin would lose out on substantial grant money through WisTAF, as well.”  With all of this bad news, the WLJ piece does note that public defenders may have reason to sing a happier tune: The governor’s “budget proposal allocates approximately $10 million to support additional staff attorneys” at the State Public Defender’s office. The money would cover salaries and benefits for 45 new positions,.” according to the SPD.  Of course, nothing is guaranteed in this economic climate: “But agency officials are not taking anything for granted, given the SPD could also be adversely impacted by the passage of Walker’s budget repair bill.  The SPD is among 13 state agencies facing layoffs as a result of delayed passage of the state budget.”
  • Last week the Wisconsin State Bar weighed in on the budget proposal.  Reaction is mixed.  It is good news that the proposal would “[p]rovide funding for 45 new positions at the State Public Defender to handle workload generated by [recently expanded indigent eligibility guidelines].”  It’s also good to hear that funding is coming for experienced-prosecutor salary boosts.  But there’s bad news: “Unfortunately, much of the additional money designated in the budget bills for prosecutors and court interpreters comes from the elimination of funding for two initiatives the State Bar also strongly supports, indigent civil legal needs and data collection to study the extent of racial profiling in Wisconsin.”

• 3.8.11 – the New York Times editorial board opposes a proposal in Congress to slash Legal Services Corporation funding.  “House Republicans voted to cut $83 million from President Obama’s request for the Legal Services Corporation, the federally financed nonprofit program that provides civil legal help to low-income Americans….  Deficit-ridden states have cut their support for these civil legal services programs. Another source of financing — interest earned on lawyers’ escrow accounts — has evaporated because of historically low interest rates. That makes federal dollars even more crucial. Given the economic crisis, and the long line of desperate clients, this is the worst time to be cutting federal support for civil legal services.” 

• 3.8.11 – the Crime Report looks at the increasing popularity of “holistic defense” in providing indigent defense services, highlighting the work of The Bronx Defenders, which provides a wide range of services to indigent defendants in order to help them not only with the immediate criminal issues but to prevent adverse collateral consequences and to help clients steer clear of trouble in the future.  The Bronx Defenders “deploys an interdisciplinary team of criminal, civil and family defense lawyers, social workers, parent advocates, investigators, and community organizers created to serve clients and their families…”  The program has been viewed as a success.  As a result, the Department of Justice has given The Bronx Defenders grants to offer technical assistance to other indigent defense programs.  Nevertheless, observers in the indigent defense community are looking for more hard data to measure whether or not holistic defense present a viable means of reducing recidivism and strengthening communities.

• 3.7.11 – Mid-Penn Legal Services is featured in a piece about how federal and state budget cuts may impact social services providers who work with society’s most vulnerable in Central Pennsylvania.   As reported in the Chambersburg Public Opinion, Mid-Penn executive director James Kearney noted that, “‘We are already stretched to the max … We only take the most critical cases, we are concerned.'”  Even at its current funding level Mid-Penn “turns away about half of the low-income people who come for help in civil court cases.”

• 3.6.11 – The Ventura County Star looks at potential LSC funding cuts and how they may impact LSC grantees in the Golden State.  “California-based LSC programs received $51 million for fiscal year 2010. The House bill would reduce funding for California programs by $9 million, LSC spokesman Steve Barr said.”  California Rural Legal Assistance “would lose $2 million of its funding and 15 of its 100 lawyers.”  The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) “received $9.3 million from LSC in 2010 and has been analyzing potential impacts of the proposed cuts.  According to Silvia Arqueta, LAFLA’s executive director, cuts could mean up to a 25% reduction in services provided to clients.

• 3.4.11 – Government Executive website has a piece about a proposal in the House aiming to improve the process for recruiting and retaining (as future employees) federal interns.  “Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., on Thursday introduced the 2011 Federal Internship Improvement Act (H.R. 914) to increase the number of government interns who are converted to full-time employees. This legislation would establish reporting requirements so that the Office of Personnel Management could evaluate agencies’ implementation of intern programs based on conversion rates, as well as determine the quality of those programs through exit interviews. It also would also establish a central clearinghouse so that agencies can recruit qualified candidates who interned for another agency … Connolly expressed concern that agencies convert just 6.6 percent of interns to full-time employees compared with more than 50 percent in the private sector. Government will have to fill more than 200,000 mission-critical jobs in the next three years, he wrote.”