The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) has issued a report which finds that Idaho "fails to provide the level of representation required by our Constitution for those who cannot afford counsel in its criminal and juvenile courts. By delegating to each county the responsibility to provide counsel at the trial level without any state funding or oversight, Idaho has sewn a patchwork quilt of underfunded, inconsistent systems that vary greatly in defining who qualifies for services and in the level of competency of the services rendered. While there are admirable qualities of some of the county indigent defense services, NLADA finds that none of the public defender systems in the sample counties are constitutionally adequate." (Emphasis added.)The seven counties studied were selected by a sub-committee of the Idaho Criminal Justice Commission and were: Ada, Blaine, Bonneville, Canyon, Kootenai, Nez Perce, and Power.
Here's a link to the NLADA's website which has links to both the full report and an executive summary. http://www.mynlada.org/content/idaho-report
At this point, I have only read the Executive Summary, but the report seems to focus on the following: 1) caseloads which in most counties far exceed national standards; 2) problems in misdemeanor cases, including the acceptance if uninformed waivers of counsel; 3) the lack of time and space for public defenders to meet privately with clients; and 4) the lack of training available to public defenders. It's important to note that the study is critical of the Idaho patchwork system of providing public defense and not of the public defenders who are struggling to do a good job everyday.
NEW LINK: Here's a Boise Weekly story on the report with quotes from interested parties:
Odd that this story is right next one of ineffective assistance of counsel for a failure to object.
ReplyDeleteNot really that odd since it was private counsel that represented Mr. McKay.
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