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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:05 am
Time: 12:05 am
Results for public defenders (texas, u.s.)
1 results foundAuthor: Fabelo, Tony Title: Improving Indigent Defense: Evaluation of the Harris County Public Defender Summary: This report explores the challenge of providing quality indigent defense services in Harris County (Houston), Texas. For all jurisdictions, that challenge is to create and sustain an effective system that fulfills the jurisdiction's constitutional obligation, allows the fulfillment of each attorney's ethical obligation to each client, and ensures that punishment and rehabilitative resources are appropriately utilized. The Harris County Public Defender ("HCPD") began operations in early 2011. In 2012, HCPD contracted with the Justice Center for technical assistance and data analysis to assist in implementation and to evaluate the effectiveness of the office. The Justice Center interacted continuously with the office, conducting data analyses and reviewing processes to guide implementation. This report summarizes the collective knowledge generated from that work. The Justice Center set out to determine whether HCPD adds value to the criminal justice system of the county. The answer is "yes." The public defender adds significant value to the delivery of defense services in Harris County in three key ways: (1) better defense case outcomes than assigned counsel; (2) previously unavailable defense services such as training, mentoring, and advice; and, (3) defense participation in discussion of systemic issues. A blend between public and private delivery of services is recommended and exists in urban settings across the country. (Harris County was the last major urban jurisdiction in the country to add a public defender.) The demonstrated value added by the Harris County Public Defender is important for balance in a system that historically has depended heavily on assigned counsel. With HCPD now fully operational, it handles only 6 percent of the county's indigent defense trial-level cases. The public defender model depends upon lawyers who justify their taxpayer salaries, but are not so busy that they are unable to competently represent clients. In contrast, the assigned counsel system allows for attorneys, without the accountability built into the public defender model, handling much higher caseloads than those acceptable by non-binding national standards, and allows for much lower per-case costs. Outcome analyses showed lower per-case costs were connected with poorer outcomes. The tension between quality and cost is the key challenge for Harris County as well as other jurisdictions operating primarily with an assigned counsel system. Details: New York: Justice Center, Council of State Governments, 2013. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 6, 2013 at: http://www.courts.state.tx.us/tidc/pdf/JCHCPDFinalReport.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.courts.state.tx.us/tidc/pdf/JCHCPDFinalReport.pdf Shelf Number: 131594 Keywords: Indigent DefenseLegal Assistance to the PoorPublic Defenders (Texas, U.S.) |