Experts say Arizona's Pima County soon won’t have enough public defenders to handle the cases being filed. “We’re hitting a crisis point,” one public defender said.
Editor's note: This story is part of 'Broken Defense,' an investigative series from Lee Enterprises. More details about this project can be found at the bottom of this article.
People are also reading… Pima County Public Defense Services director Dean Brault said the public defender, legal defender and legal advocates’ offices he oversees all have job openings, but not enough qualified people apply. To improve retention, the county now compensates mileage for contract attorneys who commute.
“Once it gets into the 50s, we become concerned that they’re so overwhelmed, they can’t represent their clients they way they’d want to,” Page said. Workloads increasingDrug charges fill most caseloads, which frustrates Page, who says substance use disorder is a public health issue.A fine line often separates a felony and misdemeanor, Page said. If a person shoplifts in an area where customers are allowed, the charge is a misdemeanor. If that person reaches over the counter or steps into an employee-only area, the charge becomes a felony, she said.
Counties with robust budgets can support multiple public defense offices. All Arizona counties, except Yavapai, have at least a secondary office. Keenan said a statewide public defense system could increase rural county funding. State funds earmarked for public defense could also help, but the Legislature often reallocates that money to other agencies, including to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
There’s no statewide agency that oversees public defenders’ caseloads. The Supreme Court collects case data, but it’s not broken down by attorney so it doesn't show whether attorneys are overwhelmed. One county, Pima, shared its data collection with Lee Enterprises. Brault provided Pima County data showing at least 23 attorneys in 2021 had caseloads above national standards, which suggests attorneys might have had too many cases to provide effective representation. Experts say the outdated standards overestimate the number of cases attorneys can handle. Brault did not have data for other counties.
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