Not to beat a dead horse, but Professor Eve Brensike Primus of the University of Michigan Law School has just written a report called Defense Counsel and Public Defense. The abstract starts like this:
Public defense delivery systems nationwide are grossly inadequate. Public defenders are forced to handle caseloads that no one could effectively manage. They often have no funding for investigation or expert assistance. They aren’t adequately trained, and there is little-to-no oversight of their work. In many jurisdictions, the public defense function is not sufficiently independent of the judiciary or the elected branches to allow for zealous representation. The result is an assembly line into prison, mostly for poor people of color, with little check on the reliability or fairness of the process.
Get the full report here.
