State Public Defender Hopes Backlog of Cases Can be Undone With More Funding

Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 -- 11:00 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) The head of the state's public defender's office says she's hopeful that a massive backlog of court cases can be undone with more funding.

State Public Defender Kelli Thompson tells WISN's UPFRONT that the lack of staff in the court system on both sides is preventing justice. "We have hindering people's rights to a speedy trial, we have individuals that are sitting in custody waiting for their day in court. We have individuals whose family members are impacted because they're not home with their families. We're concerned about the collateral consequences when people are caught in the criminal justice system. We're concerned about people who are innocent till proven guilty sitting in custody whether they're convicted or not."

Thompson has hope that the backlog will be untangled with more staff in the court system. "I think we're looking at certainly a couple of years. years. And again, it's everybody talking, everybody working together, everybody. We have to think outside the box and that's hard in the criminal justice system."

Thompson says there are 35-thousand cases in the court that need to be handled and that people are sitting in jail waiting for their day in court when they don't have to be.

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