Will the Public Defender's Office be a cure all for Harris County Defendants?
Ever since the Unites States Supreme Court decided the Gideon case the legal system has dealt with the issues regarding the appointment criminal lawyers for indigent defendants. After much debate, the Harris County Commissioner's Court is going to install a Public Defender's Office in our county. Additionally, it hopes to revamp the current court appointed system that is in place. The Harris Criminal Lawyers Association is at best split on this issue. The Harris County District Attorney's Office does not have an opinion. The general public is typically misinformed, or suffers from apathy unless a friend of family member is involved in the system. The last time I checked there were less than twenty comments for the article that was in the Houston Chronicle about this issue.
The current system in place allows each court to select a lawyer to represent a person that has been found to be indigent. The selection is done randomly by the court on a case by case basis. Each attorney that is on the list must have the required qualifications, pass a test promulgated by the State, and show an ability to handle the seriousness of the case. Additionally, there are several courts that staff their courts with their own attorneys that they have selecting thereby bypassing the random selection of lawyers to handle the cases that qualify for indigent representation. The vast majority of the defendants that are found to be indigent are in jail.
I am unclear how the "Hybrid" system is going to accomplish its goals. On one hand, the proposal hopes to reduce the amount that is paid to attorneys, and better manage their case load under the current system. The reality is that this is not feasible. Public defender offices are notoriously overworked by the court system. In fact, the Florida Public Defender's Office resorted to filing a lawsuit in order to keep their case load at the recommended amount by the Bar. Moreover, several PD Offices have budgetary problems throughout the country. The current system of appointing system private attorneys does not pay for that lawyer's support staff, office, health insurance, or retirement. These are costs that do not go into the studies conducted for the current proposal.
The other issue that the new system hopes to address is the overcrowding in the Harris County Jail. This is not going to happen unless the county changes a few things. As a mentioned above the vast majority of people that receive a court appointed attorney is in jail. Typically, a person is in jail because they can not afford to pay a bond. The bond amounts in a felony case ranges from $2,000 to $1,000,000 depending on the case. A few defendants do not get a bond. Unless, the county is willing to take another a look at the bonding schedule or start approving pre trial releases for felony cases where a defendant is not required to pay a bond before his case is settled the jail overcrowded number are not going to decrease.
I hope the general public is not thinking that the Public Defender's Office will be able to sprinkle some magic dust to cure all the problems with the Houston criminal justice system by itself.
