State Public Defender's Office Disappointed That Bill Adding More Court Personnel Failed to Advance

Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 -- 11:01 AM

(Sarah Lehr, Wisconsin Public Radio) A Republican lawmaker and the state public defender’s office are among those expressing dismay about the apparent death of a bill that would have added more court personnel.

Accordng to Sarah Lehr with Wisconsin Public Radio, the aborted proposal would have allowed Wisconsin to hire more than 100 people to work in courts across the state.

That included nearly 69 additional district attorneys, 18 assistant public defenders, several dozen public defender support staffers and several more judges. The proposal cleared Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled Assembly in February, but never made it to a Senate vote.

Last week, the Republican-led state Senate wrapped up its regularly scheduled business for the rest of the year. That means the bill appears to have fizzled out with the end of the legislative session.

The proposal’s author, Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, called that development “greatly disappointing,” but said he’s “confident” the court positions will be added in when lawmakers start work next year on the upcoming state budget.

“We have a system that’s on the brink and needs to have the proper staffing in order to operate correctly,” Steffen said during a Monday afternoon interview with WPR.

The statewide public defender’s office expressed a similar sentiment after state senators adjourned last week. In a news release, the office accused lawmakers of having “cut short a lifeline for Wisconsin’s overburdened public defense system.”

“Our attorneys are drowning, and it’s Wisconsinites who pay the price when constitutional rights are treated as an optional expense,” State Public Defender Jennifer Bias said in a statement.

The No. 2 person in that office, Deputy Public Defender Bridget Krause, echoed those concerns in an interview Friday with PBS Wisconsin’s “Here & Now.” In some instances, Krause noted that Wisconsinites are stuck in jail while they’re waiting for their cases to move forward.

“We don’t want people sitting there that could be innocent of the crimes that they’ve been accused of because they don’t have a lawyer to represent them,” Krause told PBS Wisconsin anchor Frederica Freyberg.

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