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The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should take action to meet its constitutional obligations of protecting the rights of indigent persons by providing effective counsel in criminal, juvenile, dependency, and mental health proceedings.
What to DO?
The Chief Public Defenders should be full time where the District Attorney is full time. Indigent Defense Attorneys salaries should be commensurate Full-time public defenders should not engage in private practice, exceptions are for:
Part-time public defenders. Assigned conflict counsel. Contract counsel for the indigent.
Adequate Funding of a Central Office for the Public Defender Association dedicated
By Spring 2014, dedicated, adequate funding for the Public Defender Association of PA to support a central office should be established by . . . Legislative funding Grant funding sought jointly with a research university Bake Sales (Just kidding.)
$350,000
Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association
200000
150000 100000 50000 0
$35,000
400000 350000 300000 250000 200000 150000 100000 50000 0 The Pennsylvania District Attorney
$375,000
$0
Develop a system for collection of resource & case data useful for indigent defense policy makers.
Existing Resources. Case types and numbers. Caseload/Workload. Identify resources best supplied at a regional or statewide level to achieve economies of scale.
900000 800000 700000 600000 $892,150 The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Institute
500000
400000 300000 200000 100000 0
$43,500
Caseloads for indigent defense attorneys should be held to standards consistent with the provision of quality defense services.
Taking into account:
Direct client representation Administrative responsibilities Professional development Continuing legal education requirements
Before
Let
Within three years after its establishment the Public Defender Association of Pennsylvania Central Office shall provide a report to the legislature which will provide detail by county of . . .
Customary resources made available by each county to meet public defender mission requirements. Comparison to prosecutorial resources in the same jurisdiction. Public defender caseload & conflict counsel caseload Types of cases requiring significant out of the office resources with identification of what the necessary resources are for such cases.
The utility of centrally pooling of scientific or other expert resources. The efficacy of statewide centralization of mitigation aspects of death penalty representation. Central appellate counsel to conduct appeals from the trial level courts to the appellate courts. Recommendations for improvement.