{"id":4350,"date":"2006-01-31T14:20:11","date_gmt":"2006-01-31T18:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2006\/01\/31\/nys-chief-judge-wants-a-state"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:54:12","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:54:12","slug":"nys-chief-judge-wants-a-statewide-public-defender-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2006\/01\/31\/nys-chief-judge-wants-a-statewide-public-defender-system\/","title":{"rendered":"NY’s Chief Judge wants a statewide public defender system"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The New York Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense, established by Chief <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Judge Judith S. Kaye, has unaminously recommended “a single, statewide, state-funded <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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system for the delivery of indigent defense services.”  Judge Kaye will give the details of <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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her resulting proposals, in her State of the Judiciary address, next Monday, February 6, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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2006.  (Albany Times Union<\/A><\/EM>, Jan. 31, 2006) According to Ray Kelly, president of the state’s <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers: <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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                                                                                                                    \"jailbird<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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“They are talking about setting up a statewide public defender office that would <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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be responsible for handling 60 percent of the state’s cases. They would then set <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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up a statewide system of assigned counsel to handle any conflicts.” <\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Last February, this <\/FONT>weblog voiced<\/FONT><\/A> the opinion that “indigent defendants are far more likely <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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to receive consistently competent representationin a system with fulltime public defenders <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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(with statewide monitoring and funding) than from situations that rely heavily on assigned <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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counsel.   (And see, David Feige’s excellent Slate article “Public Offenders<\/FONT><\/A>,” where he says <\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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that only<\/SPAN>a comprehensive public defender system, not one relying heavily on <\/SPAN>assigned counsel, <\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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will provide adequate service. )  Gideon’s Broken Promise<\/FONT><\/EM><\/A>, the ABA 2005 report on indigent <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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defense, states that national standards for indigent defense favor fulltime public defenders, <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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whenever the population and caseload can support them.<\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> <\/DIV>
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The New York indigent defense “system” has been organized and funded on the county <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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level since Gideon v. Wainright<\/EM>.  Many private attorneys count heavily on the assigned <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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counsel cases they received under this system and fought hard for a rate hike, finally <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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passed in 2004, that brought fees long stuck at $25 to $75 per hour to $60 to $95 dollars <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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per hour.  It is somewhat ironic, but the impetus for this change is reaction of the sixty-two <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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counties <\/SPAN><\/SPAN>to the rate hike.  The TU<\/EM> reports that, without additional State funds to help pay <\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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for the hike:<\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> <\/DIV>
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“emptypocketsS”<\/FONT> <\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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<\/SPAN><\/SPAN>“They opted instead to set up in-house offices, which were not subject to the <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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higher rates, to save money. the state’s 62 counties have established more than <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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122 individualized programs to defend the poor, with no cohesion, unified standards <\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV>
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or consistent format, said Ray Kelly….”<\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Indeed, just last week, the <\/FONT>Schenectady Gazette<\/FONT><\/EM><\/A> reported that “Eighteen months after it <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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began operations, the Schenectady County’s Conflict Defender Office has helped save <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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taxpayers more than $100,000 in outside attorney fees, a review shows. (Jan. 29, 2006, <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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p. B2).<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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Don’t be surprised if this trend spreads across the nation, as more and more assigned <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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counsel (who are in private practice) push for higher fees.  The Bar Advocates<\/FONT><\/A> in Mass-<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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achusetts are clearly afraid that the fee hikes they coerced from the Legislature last year <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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may result in the establishment of public defender offices that will take away work they <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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consider to be “theirs.”  Thus, they adamantly oppose<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A> the hiring of more public defenders.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV>
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(see our prior post<\/A>)  Perhaps, like auto workers, their organized successes may <\/FONT>prove to<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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be their undoing.  <\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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the mountain moon              
gives the blossom thief
light<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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<\/FONT> <\/DIV>
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   <\/FONT>Issa<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A>,<\/FONT><\/DIV>
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     translated by <\/FONT>David G. Lanoue<\/STRONG><\/FONT><\/A><\/DIV>
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 <\/DIV>
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                                                \"snowFlakeS\"<\/DIV><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/BLOCKQUOTE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense, established by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, has unaminously recommended “a single, statewide, state-funded system for the delivery of indigent defense services.”  Judge Kaye will give the details of her resulting proposals, in her State of the Judiciary address, next Monday, February 6, 2006.  (Albany Times Union, Jan. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-18a","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12804,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions\/12804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}