Wisconsin Public Defenders Facing Severe Understaffing
By Jamie Bence
From Wisconsin, more bad news for public defenders facing budget cuts, and the possible impact on defender services. According the report, just 25% of Wisconsin’s public defender offices have enough attorneys. WTAQ explains:
The constitution requires all criminal defendants to have attorneys, regardless of income. And counties must arrange to have private lawyers represent those that the public defender’s office cannot handle.
The report also called on states to consider more of a defendant’s needs when representing the poor.
Thompson says her agency is working on that. It’s working with non-profit service agencies to offer poor defendants help with finding jobs, housing, and mental health care. She says the goal is to reduce the possibility that criminals will offend again – thus keeping them out of the criminal justice system.
The findings come from a report from the Justice Policy Institute, which we blogged about last week.
