More money given to public defenders
Dems on the JFC voted to create 49.3 GPR-funded jobs for indigent legal defense counsel, including 32.3 attorneys, but the move will be delayed until the end of the 2011 fiscal year.
In addition to the attorney jobs, the motion also creates 10.8 legal secretary jobs, 4.6 investigator jobs, and 1.6 client service specialist jobs.
The motion sets the indigency standard at 115 percent of the federal poverty level.
The changes take effect on June 30, 2011. Gov. Doyle had taken no position on it. (Budget paper 617)
Sen. Taylor, one of the co-authors of the motion, said that the legal system is currently out of balance, with a 200-plus position shortage in public defenders.
"This doesn't even balance it, but it begins the process of saying 'We believe in fair justice,'" she said.
Rep. Vos said based on their vote against more funding for DAs and for more public defenders Dems want "more people working to get the criminals out of jail" than to put them away, and suggested they will pay for that when voters find out.
The motion does not have fiscal effect in this budget but would end up costing $4.4 million in the next budget.
The motion passed on a party-line vote.
-- By Greg Bump
1 Comments:
Equating the creation of more staff public defender postions with wanting "more people working to get criminals out of jail" reflects a profound and shocking misunderstanding not only of the justice system but the budget process as well. As anyone with even a passing knowledge of criminal justice budget issues understands, hiring staff public defenders actually saves the state money because it limits the money that must be spent to hire private attorneys to discharge the state's constitutional duty to provide legal counsel for indigent defendants. The fact that Rep. Vos either doesn't understand this or pretends not to shows he's either profoundly ignorant of basic budget issues or is driven by purely partisan ends to deliberately distort the truth.
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