Imagine you are responsible for providing legal representation for indigent people in your state (the public defender's office). Seven years ago, a request for additional funding to meet increased case load was vetoed. Your budget was cut in 2015 and now the governor's office is recommending further cuts. Making things worse is the fact that the number of cases has increased 12%. What would you do?
The Director of the Missouri Public Defender System came up with a novel approach to help meet the increased caseload burden and sent a letter to the Governor (PDF) compelling him to work cases.
Additional reporting here, here, and here.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday August 05 2016, @07:40AM
If lawyers can't be hired, why not simply dismiss the cases? Then the governor can take the heat for letting criminals go free because he wouldn't fund the judicial system.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @07:44AM
Your ass is going to stay in jail until you pay for your own lawyer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday August 05 2016, @03:49PM
As prisons increasingly become 'for profit prisons', it would make sense* for the state to allocate more money to keep prisons full, and allocate less funds to defending people which might cause unprofitable vacancies within the prisons.
Prison overflows are a good thing (in states like this, with governors and legislatures like this) because prison overflowing leads to constructing more of the profitable prisons and thus increasing value to shareholders.
* it would make sense in some twisted reasoning. I don't want to blame a particular political party, but hey that party is also 'pro-business' and insists that all regulation of any kind is bad. Go ahead, pollute our air, water; eliminate competitors, have worse service and higher prices! It's good for business!
Also, for profit prisons ensure a demand for the education system to produce a continuous stream of graduates, a certain percentage of which, are guaranteed to be poorly educated, less employable, more likely to commit crime, and more likely to end up in profitable prisons -- increasing value to shareholders, and leading to demand to build more of the profitable prisons!
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Friday August 05 2016, @04:48PM
Go ahead, say it, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, BOTH are as pro-business as they can get.
You don't believe it? Just follow the money... going to both parties from Wall Street, insurance companies, big banks, the Koch brothers et al.
God, I hate this situation... no choice at all or the long shot Green Party...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @11:12AM
I'd guess the cases can't simply be dismissed, because the defendants *do* have a lawyer. It's just that each of those lawyers is also working for 100+ other people at the same time. And since the state government refused to set a cap, each of those lawyers can always be made to take on another client.
So long as the public defender's office has lawyers on staff, this will continue. A strike or mass resignation is the only way this will come to a head any time soon.