Wisconsin Criminal Justice Groups Looking for Pay Raises for Public Defenders and Local Prosecutors

Friday, December 23rd, 2022 -- 8:01 AM

(By Sarah Lehr, Wisconsin Public Radio) Criminal justice groups are banding together to outline their priorities for Wisconsin's next two-year budget.

According to Sarah Lehr with Wisconsin Public Radio, among their requests: pay raises of roughly $8 an hour for public defenders and local prosecutors. The joint wish list is backed by Wisconsin's Department of Justice, its Director of State Courts, the Wisconsin State Public Defender's Office, the Association of State Prosecutors and all 71 of Wisconsin's elected district attorneys.

Wisconsin struggles to compete with the private sector when hiring lawyers, said Adam Plotkin, legislative liaison to the state's Office of the Public Defender. That's true "on both sides of the courtroom," he said, for both the public attorneys who represent low-income clients and the district attorneys who prosecute crimes at the county level.

"No one goes into any of this work, prosecution side or the defense side, thinking they're going to get rich," Plotkin said, "They're driven by a mission. But they want to be able to make sufficient money to live and have a house and car and a family and pay off pretty significant student debts for a degree that's required to do the work."

The proposal released this week by the criminal justice coalition would use $13.6 million over two years to raise hourly pay for assistant state public defenders from $26.70 to $35.

The starting wage for assistant public defenders would become $35 an hour during the first pay period of fiscal year 2024, up from $27.24 an hour. Assistant district attorneys, deputy district attorneys and elected district attorneys at higher levels of the pay scale would also see $7.76 hourly increases.

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