Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #FundPublicDefense
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This is a must read!
The report shows CA in 18/19 spent
2 billion on prosecution &
1.1 billion on indigent defense
10,500 employed by DA offices &
4,305 employed by PD offices
This is not remotely close to a "fair" system of justice #FundPublicDefense
lao.ca.gov/Publications/R…
The report shows CA in 18/19 spent
2 billion on prosecution &
1.1 billion on indigent defense
10,500 employed by DA offices &
4,305 employed by PD offices
This is not remotely close to a "fair" system of justice #FundPublicDefense
lao.ca.gov/Publications/R…
It shows the gross imbalance of resources dedicated to prosecution over protecting the 6th amendment right to counsel. CA spending on indigent defense is 55% of what it spends on prosecution. That is nearly 2 to 1! The solution is clear - We need to #FundPublicDefense
This imbalance of resources fuels mass incarceration & our prisons & jails will continue to be filled with Black & Brown people. If the majority of white people in this country were incarcerated or had to rely on public defenders, funding would be drastically different. #Facts
So, because I'm thinking about it tonight, I wanted to explain what I mean when I say "if you let police break everything, you need public defenders to fix everything." I wanted to give y'all some shocking facts (with receipts) so we can get fired up together.
To start with, we've all seen how broad our criminal legal system has been, and is getting, and will get. We have prosecuted people for voting: newsobserver.com/opinion/articl…
Prosecuted (and sometimes violently arrested) for selling water (this one happens a lot) usatoday.com/story/news/nat…
So one single narcotics detective has finally been caught testilying, and now hundreds of cases are in question. I want to tell you about my personal experience with this fool, and about how the scale of impact here is much, much bigger than it seems. nytimes.com/2021/04/06/nyr…
I tried a case with this guy involved. My client had to go to trial because he was completely innocent, had no drugs on his person or in his home (where he was arrested, in front of his kids), no money, no scales, no nothing. But charges were still pressed...
They were still pressed because this one undercover--the guy in the NYT story above--insisted he bought drugs from the guy with no drugs. It was the Bronx, and NYT has effectively no speedy trial rule, so this case lingered for OVER A YEAR.
You know what would create a massive, system-wide push in juvenile justice, sentencing, restorative justice work, &the criminalization of poverty?
Resourcing public defense equally to prosecution.
Instant impact for people actually ensnared in our legal system.
Resourcing public defense equally to prosecution.
Instant impact for people actually ensnared in our legal system.
Equal pay ≠ enough. We need staffing, infrastructure, funding for collaborations & community facing initiatives. For policy work informed by real world experience. For training. For technology. For case loads that allow us to have all the time to do all the things clients need.
People in the policy/legislative world often don't realize how hard it is to make great policy actually reach the people it is supposed to reach. That's that's the role of those of us on the ground. And to ensure we can fulfill that role, we need to #FundPublicDefense
