Legal Commentary

Report: Indigent Systems in Crisis

By Jeralyn

The Constitution Project has issued the most comprehensive report in 30 years on the constitutional right to counsel.

Excessive caseloads, inadequate funding, ethical breaches, politicization of the public defender system, lack of timely appointment of counsel or no appointment at all are depriving the poor of the constitutional right to representation in criminal and juvenile cases. This is the conclusion of a report released today by the Constitution Project’s bipartisan National Right to Counsel Committee. The report, Justice Denied: America’s Continuing Neglect of Our Constitutional Right to Counsel, outlines the crisis in the country’s public defense system and offers 22 recommendations to state and federal officials to fix it.

The report includes recommendations for adequate funding, independent oversight, and standards for attorney competence, compensation, and workload.

A summary of findings is here, and the full report is downloadable here (pdf).

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).