Time To Say No
The Public Defender of Marion County (“PDMC”) is a nonprofit public defense office, challenging the legality of Oregon’s case quota system. PDMC and its Executive Director, Shannon Wilson, brought the initial lawsuit against the Oregon Public Defense Commission (“OPDC”), the state agency responsible for administering contracts and funding public defense providers. At the preliminary hearing […]
The Problem with Ignoring the National Public Defense Workload Study
By Kawan Clinton, Deputy Attorney in Charge of the Manhattan trial office of The LegalAid Society. Co-chair of the NAPD Workloads Committee. This blog is in response to Professor John P. Gross: https://publicdefenders.us/blogs/the-problems-with-the-national-public-defense-workload-study/.1The problem with the National Public Defense Workload Study (NPDWS) is simple. It is longoverdue and lands in a political landscape that makes […]
The Problems with the National Public Defense Workload Study
By John P. Gross, Clinical Associate Professor of Law & Director of the Public Defender Project, University of Wisconsin School of Law Two years ago, the RAND Corporation published the “National Public Defense Workload Study”. That study concluded that public defender workloads should be roughly a third of the National Advisory Commission (NAC) on Criminal […]
236 | Molly Gilbert and Jason Schwarz: How Washington is Implementing Public Defender Workload Standards
Today, Hunter is joined by Molly Gilbert and Jason Schwarz to discuss the plan to implement Public Defender workload standards across the state of Washington. Despite not being a centralized Public Defender system, the Public Defenders of Washington, spurred by the State Supreme Court, figured out how to work with the state bar to get […]
From a 25% Vacancy Rate to Nearly Zero, How the Montana Public Defender System Came Back from the Brink w/Brett Schandelson
Today, Hunter is once again joined by Brett Schandelson, the Director of the Montana Office of the State Public Defender. Last time he was one, we discussed his efforts to make Public Defense policy in Montana driven by data. Today, we discuss how those efforts have drastically turned the state system around. Specifically, Brett details […]
Oregon’s Plan to Reduce Workloads and What it Means for Our National Workloads Strategy: A Reflection by Stephen F. Hanlon
Stephen F. Hanlon is a leading national advocate on public defense workloads and Founding Co-chair of NAPD’s Workloads Committee. Read more about him at lawyerhanlon.com. Oregon’s Six-Year Plan to Reduce Public Defender Deficit A new report, prepared by Moss Adams, the largest accounting firm west of the Mississippi, with assistance from James Austin, Malia Brink, […]
NAPD Publishes Policy Statement on Workloads
Since its founding ten years ago, NAPD has been a leading national voice on reducing public defense workloads. In light of new research and developments in public defense, NAPD has updated its previous guidance from 2015 and 2017, and adopted a new Policy Statement on Workloads. Bob Boruchowitz and Kawan Clinton, Co-chairs of NAPD’s Workloads […]
Sometimes to Fix a Public Defender System, You have to be Willing to Let it Fail w/James McDermott and Paul Chambers
Today, Hunter is once again joined by James McDermott and Paul Chambers from the Far West Texas Regional Public Defender Office. This time, James and Paul are discussing how they utilized the new National Workload study to double their attorney staff. While the use of data was extremely important into winning over county commissioners, James’ […]
With Defense Attorneys Like These, Who Needs Prosecutors?
With Defense Attorneys Like These, Who Needs Prosecutors? Bayou City, Space City, H-Town—Houston’s collected some snappy monikers. But there’s one nickname the city is trying to shake: death penalty capital of the world. Unfortunately, Houston’s reputation is deserved. Most of America no longer executes people. But in places that still do, facing a capital case […]