Reply #22: Indigent Defense Remains Under Funded Texas Public Defenders Office

[Independem]

Indigent Defense Remains Under Funded Texas Public Defenders Office


A story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published on Thanksgiving Day by Martha Deller lamented a systemic under funding of indigent defense across the state in the face of growing demand. The article opened:

A shortage of qualified criminal defense attorneys has delayed felony trials in some parts of Texas and resulted in some low-income people accused of misdemeanor offenses going without counsel, according to the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense.

Counties are also struggling to pay for indigent defense, the task force says. Last year, counties paid $186 million to serve 471,000 defendants. But the state funded only $29 million of that in grants administered by the task force, said Wesley Shackleford, deputy director of the task force

http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/11/indigent-defense-remains-underfunded.html

Private Prisons get hundreds of millions in fees for ever poor man/woman/teenager in jail, why defend them, its called Privatizing. Under Funding the Public Defenders office makes money for all involved except for the poor peasants. Texas is not the only state, it is a nation wide greed machine.

Grits for Breakfast
Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.


http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/11/indigent-defense-remains-underfunded.html