AFSCME Local 3315

Brendan Max (312) 505-4632

K.S. Galhotra (773)659-4669

A CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CRISIS:

THE REAL FACTS ABOUT THE PUBLIC DEFENDER SYSTEM IN COOKCOUNTY

  • The Cook County Public Defender Office already operates on a dangerously under-funded budget cut to the bone- the taxpayer expenditure per public defender case in Cook County ($132/case) is far lower than other public defender systems across the country.


  • As a direct result of this dangerous under-funding, the Public Defender Office in CookCounty is already teetering on the edge of disaster. The average Cook County Public Defender handles 800 cases per year, many times more than the American Bar Association recommends for effective representation. National commentators have already noted that this critical shortage will inevitably lead to unethically poor representation.
  • In the face of this looming crisis, the Stroger budget plan seeks to cut public defender work hours by 30%- 36 layoffs, 4-day work weeks, and an additional 10 days of unpaid furlough. This drastic cut will make a bad situation worse, putting assistant public defenders in an unethical situation of maintaining excessive caseloads in the face of dwindling work hours.
  • The delays that will result from this breakdown in the criminal justice system will more than offset the paper savings being squeezed from our budget.

Current budget of the CookCounty Public Defender Office is already cut to the bone- In 2005, our lawyers handled 387,030 cases. With an Office budget for fiscal 2005 of $51 million, the cost per case in CookCounty is $132.[1]

Compare this amount with other public defense systems across the country:

The public defender systems in Wisconsin and Minnesota together handle fewer cases than the Cook County Public Defender Office, yet their combined budgets dwarf the Cook County Public Defender budget: $136 million to $51 million.[2]

Other urban centers in the country pay 2 or 3 times as much in taxpayer funds per cases defended as taxpayers in CookCounty. The City of Los Angeles Public Defender Office has a budget more than 3 times the size as CookCounty- $168 million to $51 million- and taxpayers there pay more than twice the cost per case as taxpayers in CookCounty. In Philadelphia, the public defender system costs taxpayers $423 per case, three times the cost in CookCounty.[3]

An American Bar Association study looking at public defender systems around the country ranked the state of Virginia as the cheapest state for indigent defense in 2002, spending only $245 per case defended. Virginia was only able to take the title as cheapest because the ABA did not look at CookCounty, where this County was spending only $108 per public defender case in 2002.[4]

High Case Loads and Lagging Wages- The ABA also sets case load maximums for public defenders, which should not exceed 150 felonies and 400 misdemeanors. By some estimates, the average public defender handles 800 cases each year. As recently reported by the Chicago Sun-times, case loads for assistant public defenders in CookCounty far exceed the maximums set by the ABA. As reported in The Champion, “these lawyers have excessive caseloads and no matter how dedicated and conscientious they are, they cannot furnish the kind of competent and diligent representation required by the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct.” This situation is already a crisis. The indiscriminate cuts proposed by Todd Stroger, whether through layoffs or unpaid forced dead time, would tip this office over the edge. Meanwhile, wages for assistant public defenders have barely kept up with inflation.

Squeezing $10 million from our budget is a shell game- The shortsighted budget plan proposed by Todd Stroger and Edwin Burnette would likely cost CookCounty taxpayers many more millions than the paper savings anticipated. Mandatory days of forced dead time and 4-day work weeks mean that criminal cases would be resolved more slowly. Prolonging the stay of the approximately 10,000 inmates in CountyJail by only a single additional court appearance prior to resolution of criminal cases would mean a loss to County taxpayers of $20 million per month in added Jail expenses.[5] The proposed 2-week forced dead time alone would cause a corresponding 2-week delay in disposing cases, immediately costing CountyTaxpayers $10 million in added Jail costs.

Brendan Max

K. S. Galhotra

Public Defender Association

AFSCME Local 3315

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