Bill Increasing Funding for Public Defender's Gets Hearing at the Capital
Friday, November 1st, 2019 -- 11:56 AM
(WRN) -A bill that would increase the funding for the state public defender's office got a hearing at the legislature's Joint Finance Committee on Thursday.A bill that would increase the funding for the state public defender's office got a hearing at the legislature's Joint Finance Committee on Thursday. Attorney Richard Jones from the Public Defender's office says the disparity in funding between the Defender's office and District Attorney's offices makes it hard to recruit.
"Prosecutors receive consistent, regular raises, that we're not always entitled to."
Jones says recruiting young attorneys to the Defender's office is tougher when they don't have the same support from the state that prosecutors do.
"And my concern is that they're in the safe fight as assistant district attorneys, and deserve to be compensated at the same level that we compensate them."
Jones says compensation needs to be raised because young attorneys that decide to join his office often need financial support out of law school.
"There are often times they're struggling to pay bills, they're weighed down by student loan debt, some of them attempt to work second jobs in addition to the enormous hours that we work."
Lawmakers say that ensuring proper staffing of the Defender's offices will speed up prosecutions and criminal cases, keeping defendants out of county lockup.
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