Private Contractors As Public Defenders
Here is an interesting article on a county in California that apparently subcontracts its public defense obligations to private companies. The short version is that the private company Lake County had been using was doing a very poor job so they conducted a grand jury investigation, turned the responsibilities over to a new company, and created a oversight committee.The whole situation seems odd to me since I've only practiced/interviewed in jurisdictions in which the county runs it's own public defender office. I've even seen some part-time public defenders, but they are still run by the county. I would think that Lake County would see the problem with hiring private contractors after the first company failed so badly. Private companies operate for one purpose and one purpose only: to generate profit. They care about making money, not about protecting the civil rights of people who can't afford attorneys. The new company is even headed by one of the same guys who headed the first company. Then again, maybe the county is so small or poor that subcontracting is its only option.
It also seemed odd that the public defenders didn't even have an office. Aside from just the client meetings which are mentioned in the article, where were they supposed to review documents, draft motions and make telephone calls? I wonder whether this was a budget constraint imposed by the county or a cost-saving measure taken by the private company.
Whether the company was to blame for cutting corners or the county is to blame for not providing adequate funding for the public defender system, the result is the same: indigent people accused of crimes do not get quality representation they deserve. If Lake County doesn't learn from their past mistakes and fix this situation, they might soon be facing a federal lawsuit.
posted by Public Defense @ 12/05/2005
1 Comments:
Thanks for your thoughts, Greg.
I think I'll turn on word verification now.
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