Op-Ed: Public defender sevices stink

From the Traverse City Record-Eagle:

Everyone who has ever seen a TV courtroom drama knows that if you are charged with a crime and are too poor to afford a lawyer, the state will appoint one for you.

Yet if you think that means everyone gets “equal justice under law,” you are sadly mistaken — especially if you live in Michigan. A just-released, extensive new study of public defender programs in the state has revealed shocking failures in the system.

“This is a disgrace. Michigan has utterly failed to live up to its constitutional obligations,” said David Carroll, who is director of research for the non-profit National Legal Aid and Defender Association, which did the study for the state Legislature.

The report found that the state, which once prided itself on the modernity and effectiveness of its justice system, is close to being worst in the nation in terms of its public defender services. Michigan spends less per capita to defend people than all but six other states.

The title of their final report pretty effectively captures it all: “A Race to the Bottom: Speed and Savings Over Due Process: A Constitutional Crisis.” Among other horrors, the investigation found:

•In Chippewa County, the district court provides no confidential meeting space where a court-appointed lawyer can meet with his or her clients. Instead, “most attorneys wait in line to bring their clients, one-by-one, into the unisex restroom across from judge’s chambers.” Others settle for whispering in the corridor.

•In Ottawa County, there isn’t even much effort to pretend that an “adversarial contest” exists between prosecutors and defense attorneys. Instead, “indigent defense services has devolved to the point where defense attorneys call the prosecuting attorney and ask him to have law enforcement conduct further investigations rather than conducting independent investigations themselves.”

Ottawa’s system has become such a farce that the day on which arraignments are held is known locally as “McJustice Day.”

•Michigan has utterly failed to follow American Bar Association principles requiring that public defense attorneys have properly experience and training to match the case.

Much of the problem, the study found, is related to the fact that Michigan is one of only six states where all the public defender costs are borne by the individual counties. The association’s study looked intensively at 10 counties, from the most urban to the most rural. (Grand Traverse County was one of these; it was neither the best or most terrible.) “All were inadequate, but some were far worse than others,” Carroll said. He feels strongly that Michigan needs to move to an entirely state-funded public defender system.

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