Thread by @TinaHeat23

Here's the thing, @GovJanetMills : You can try to hide behind "crime rates are down, court filings are down" as a "reason" not to fund MCILS to ensure that people are hired who can do the financial accountability and quality oversight you say /1
wmtw.com/article/maine-…

you recognize we need, but we know it's baloney.
MCILS attorneys continue to open cases at the same rate, the opioid crisis has increased child protective cases exponentially, electronic discovery has added to attorney time in each case, /2

, and a "raise" from $50 to $60 per hour in 2015/2016 increased the budget by 20% then.
Just admit it: You don't care about indigent defense attorneys or the people we represent. /3

You would rather see the whole state organized under the disastrous former contract model from Somerset. You think if attorneys care enough to spend time on their cases &clients and bill for that time, they are grifters and cheats. Why not just say what we all know you think? /4

New MCILS cases by fiscal year:
FY’11 – 30,486
FY’12 – 24,957
FY’13 – 24,810
FY’14 – 24,780
FY’15 – 25,292
FY’16 – 25,988
FY’17 – 25,724
FY’18 – 26,704
FY’19 – 27,351
FY’20 – 27,195
FY’21 – 19,086 (*through Feb. 2021 only) /5

Now that a simple data request from MCILS debunks your excuses, are you going to finally reckon with the very real problems that were highlighted by @6thAMD and approve funding necessary to fulfill constitutional mandates? /6

Or are you going to keep making up new and sillier excuses for why we dirty defenders in #Maine don't deserve more money and our unworthy clients don't deserve better funded attorneys who are supported by a better funded system? /7

This appears to be an issue that legislators from both sides of the aisle care about and are willing to fight for. The only person blocking change and progress (like in every area of criminal legal reform in our state) is you. /8

Where's your outcry when #LongCreek 's budget has increased to nearly $19MM for FY 2022 to cage 27 children (down from 250)? We spend more on a child prison than we do on indigent defense annually. /9