MA. Governor Patrick wants to end the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state’s public defender agency.

If Governor Deval Patrick of MA has his way The Commonwealth of MA will prosecute, defend and sentence the indigent. Could anyone expect a fair trial for the indigent if this passes? Welcome to the future of justice for the indigent in MA.

Governor Deval Patrick wants to eliminate the use of private attorneys to represent indigent defendants, an entrenched $200 million system that has been attacked as unfair by prosecutors across the state.

The sweeping measure, which will be contained in the governor’s fiscal year 2012 budget, would end the state’s practice of farming out roughly 90 percent of the work defending poor clients in criminal cases. The state instead would hire about 1,000 full-time staff attorneys to replace the 3,000 private lawyers the state draws on to represent poor people.

Staff lawyers will cost less, officials argue, because they have no incentive to run up huge bills like private lawyers, who are paid $50 to $100 an hour, depending on the type of case. The Public Counsel Services budget, the administration official said, has soared by $100 million since 2003.

But the head of the Committee for Public Counsel Services said the plan is misguided.

“What the governor is proposing is taking a model system by all accounts and an agency that is extremely well run and turning it into a system similar to others in the country,’’ that have been beset by problems, said Anthony Benedetti, the agency’s chief counsel. “In states where the public defenders are all public, public defenders are overworked, underfunded, and provide ineffective representation.’’

Benedetti said he believes officials have overestimated the potential cost savings by misapplying national caseload standards.


Link:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/01/24/patrick_wants_to_end_use_of_private_attorneys_for_public_defense/