Six upstate counties fail in public defense services

From the North Country Gazette:

ALBANY—Six upstate counties received failing grades this week in an assessment of their public defense services to people who cannot afford a private lawyer, the latest evidence of a failing county-based system that a report to the state’s chief judge last year called “an on-going crisis.”

The six counties – Cattaraugus, Niagara, Ontario, Schuyler, Tioga and Washington – were graded on their compliance with the American Bar Association’s Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System, which lay out fundamental criteria for a system to provide “effective, efficient, high quality, ethical, conflict-free representation” to all defendants regardless of their ability to afford a private lawyer.

Those guidelines call for an independent system of public defense, with reasonable caseload limits, a guarantee of client confidentiality, a parity of resources between prosecution and defense and accountability.

“Now is the time to restore justice to our state,” said Michael Whiteman, chairman of the Committee for an Independent Public Defense Commission (CIPDC) and a partner in the Albany law firm of Whiteman Osterman and Hanna. “It is unconscionable for New York to be so far out of compliance with nationally recognized standards for a fair and effective public defense system.”

The report cards were prepared by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) as part of a series of reports for the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA). NYSDA operates a statewide public defense support center and is required to analyze the public defense system and make recommendations to the Governor. NYSDA and the CIPDC are members of the Campaign for an Independent Public Defense Commission.

Researchers credited the commitment of public defenders and others who struggle daily under adverse conditions to provide public defense services, but said implementation of the Kaye Commission recommendations are essential to overhaul the entire system to guarantee the kind of quality effective representation mandated by the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright.

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