The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette
Indiana’s broken public defender system requires a thorough overhaul, but the modest changes lawmakers have undertaken this session are promising. They can fully deliver by approving a biennial budget with funds to fully support reform. The investment ultimately will enhance public safety and save tax dollars.
The disparaging assessment of the state’s public defense services came in a harsh report from the Boston-based Sixth Amendment Center, which monitors state and federal adherence to the constitutional protections afforded everyone accused of a crime.
“If indigent defense services are structured so as to actually deny counsel to defendants, or to constructively give the accused a lawyer in name only because the lawyer has too many cases or operates under too many financial conflicts to be effective, the system itself is constitutionally deficient,” the 2016 report stated. “Yet, this is an apt description of the constitutional right to counsel in Indiana today.”
The Indiana Task Force on Public Defense was established in response. Former Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John Tinder served as chair of the panel, which found multiple problems, including:
. Uneven access to counsel
Excessive misdemeanor caseloads
Presence of conflicts of interest
Inadequate commission staff
Need for greater service in child welfare
Senate Bill 488, which would create multicounty public defender offices, comes from task force recommendations. Some smaller counties do not participate in a state program providing reimbursement for a portion of public defender services because they would be required to comply with caseload limits. The legislation could serve as a cost-sharing mechanism to allow those counties to meet the minimum standards.
It also would address conflicts. Currently, judges in the non-participating counties hire public defenders or appoint attorneys to act as counsel for defendants who cannot afford to hire their own. A judge, in those cases, has authority over a public defender who might have to challenge the judge’s own work to adequately represent his or her client. SB 488 cleared the Senate with a unanimous vote and has moved to the other chamber.
House Bill 1453, now before the Ways and Means Committee, is another vital step toward improvement. It would expand indigent defense reimbursements to misdemeanor cases.
Money is essential to improving Indiana’s indigent defense system. The Indiana Public Defender Commission’s 2019-21 budget request calls for a base increase of $4.47 million a year; expanded reimbursements at an additional $5.7 million annually; and creation of a statewide appellate office at $4.9 million a year.
Supporters of the reform initiatives point to the opportunity to mitigate public costs. Misdemeanor cases, for example, can be costly when defendants face fines and loss of licenses.
“Research has shown that the ability to earn a living is the best way to keep someone from committing another crime; however, the excessive barriers confronting those with a criminal conviction make the task of being able to provide for oneself and family nearly impossible,” a coalition of national criminal justice groups wrote. “Ensuring an effective public defense delivery system will decrease the number of people burdened with collateral consequences, resulting in more people remaining contributing members of society.”
The statutory changes in SB 488 and HB 1453 should be approved. But lawmakers must also provide the necessary budget appropriations if Hoosiers are to honor a constitutional obligation to protect the rights of the accused.
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