Thread by @ScottHech

Meet Lacie Dauzat. The only public defender advocating for the release of 18,000 people arrested each year in East Baton Rouge. Since the pandemic, she's successfully gained release of over 1000 people. "I am actually your typical Southern girl." This: teenvogue.com/story/public-d…

"I love to hunt, fish, do anything outdoors. I grew up on a farm in Bordelonville, a very rural, country town w/ no sidewalks & no stoplights. Raised by my aunt & grandparents, taught to believe you get more flies with honey & you give the respect that you would want in return."

“I sit alone in a bleak concrete-walled room in the Prison of East Baton Rouge. It’s hot. No windows & only hard wooden benches. The ceiling is covered in mold. Only sounds I hear are from the desperate people arrested within the last 48 hours, locked in cages just outside.”

“The place I am describing is considered a courtroom. It’s tough to practice social distancing & difficult for those I will soon represent to hear me thru my mask. Still, I try to gather as much information as possible before the judge appears on the 32-inch television screen.”

“Once the judge appears, those arrested will quickly be called up & told what they are being charged w/ & what their bonds will be. Several thousand for taking food from a Walmart or marijuana. The judge will then ask if they can afford an attorney & appoint me if they cannot.”

“My goal is to always show the humanity of the people I represent — that they’re not just another number on the list or face in the crowd, another statistic. Silenced out of fear that anything they say will incriminate them, I speak up. I tell their story.”

“I let it be known that any day locked in a cage, too poor to afford bond payments, will essentially hit the reset button on a person’s life. Any good accomplished, any housing or employment obtained, or care they’ve devoted to their loved ones can essentially evaporate.”

“Since the onset of COVID-19 in March, my advocacy has helped gain the release of hundreds of people. I have reunited families. I have improved public health outcomes. I have helped keep crime down. I have connected people with needed resources.”

“I am the only public defender advocating for the release of the 18,000 people arrested each year in East Baton Rouge, in a state that, because of an avoidable public-defense funding crisis, is on the cusp of losing public defense altogether.”

“I grew up on a farm in Bordelonville, a very rural country town w/ no sidewalks & no stoplights. Raised by my aunt & grandparents, taught to believe that you get more flies with honey and you give the respect that you would want in return.“

“With family working in local prison, I learned early how easily society could lock people away & out of sight. Hearing stories from people incarcerated is where my path to defense began. Learning they had a life before they went inside & unsure of what they’d have once out.”

“Today, the stories I encounter on the job are all unique and each is just as important as the last.”

“It’s the crying I hear when a person I meet knows there is no way his family can afford the $10,000 bond for an alleged drug offense.”

“It’s the profound pain I feel when I’m told that they are afraid their families will try to sell everything they own just to get them out.”

“The fear I have when an elderly person who comes through tells me of his numerous medical conditions, and I know that he is at risk of contracting COVID-19.”

“Before I started this work a few years ago, there was no public defender to advocate for those incarcerated at this early stage whatsoever. Though it’s hard to believe, people who were arrested used to be left alone to stand before a judge & prosecution & represent themselves.”

“This cruel practice — uncounseled bail hearings — is the norm in Louisiana. It’s the reason why my office’s pretrial release unit was created. We saw results right away. We took a prison with a population of 1,700 down to under 1,000 in a matter of weeks.” And more:

“We didn’t just secure release. We provided resources & communication to keep them from returning. Connected w/ services they never even knew existed in their community. Won key dismissals. Some humanity in a cruel & impersonal system that turns the Prison into a crisis center.”

“My pretrial unit is not even funded by Louisiana. We do this work only thanks to grant funding we had to find from outside the state. Public defense in Louisiana is barely funded at all. Instead, we’re forced to rely on an unjust and unstable system referred to as a “user pay.”

User pay: “Traffic tickets, court fees and fines from the arrest, conviction and incarceration of the very people too poor to afford public defense are what the state relies on to support public defender offices. Only a small amt of state budget is allocated to indigent defense.”

“Public defense offices like mine were reeling from lack of funding before COVID-19 struck. Now, we have no choice but to layoff/furlough essential staff bc the pandemic has depleted this unstable funding source. 1000s remain jailed, waiting w/o an attorney to represent them.”

"Louisiana defenders represent already-traumatized communities, serving tens of thousands of men, women, and children each year who suffer from poverty, homelessness, mental health issues, and substance abuse disorders that have only been made worse by the pandemic."

"Public defenders are needed now more than ever to save lives, provide counsel for those detained, & save taxpayers costly waste of caging people pretrial. Unless the state legislature steps in, we may now lose public defense altogether. Somehow I have faith they’ll do right."

Lacie & public defenders from her office & across the state, along with organizers teamed up to launch a powerful campaign to end the user pay system and fully fund public defense. Watch this video (narrated by a formerly incarcerated advocate) to learn:

Learn more. Take action. And call on the Louisiana legislature to save public defense. ForTheSixth.org