ANNAPOLIS – Buried in cases, the Maryland Office of the Public Defender Thursday asked the Senate Subcommittee on Public Safety, Transportation, and Environment for help – $10 million to $12 million over the next three years to increase its staff.
Since 1994, the OPD has seen a 38 percent increase in the total number of cases handled, but has yet to receive new personnel, according to self-reported numbers. Last year, the office was approved for 10 new lawyers, but funding to hire them never came.
“It’s very serious. It’s the reason why we have stopped taking new cases in Baltimore,” said Patricia L. Chappell, OPD counsel for policy and planning. “You just cannot provide effective assistance.”
Last May, when the OPD said Baltimore could not handle any more cases, their attorneys had 80 serious felony cases – rape, murder, etc. – each, Chappell said.
“If you really extrapolate 80 cases per attorney, it would allow for 8 minutes per case,” Chappell said. “That’s insane. And these are serious felonies.”
Overloads at the OPD have been a continuous problem according to committee member Sen. Ida G. Ruben, D-Montgomery.
“This has been a crisis ever since I’ve been on this committee and that’s 16 years,” Ruben said. “It’s impossible to say how this will go through, but it’s logical that in the long run it could save money.”
There are 143 public defenders in circuit court, 120 in district court and 49 in juvenile court. To meet American Bar Association standards, the OPD needs 348 more attorneys. Even estimating conservatively, they need 238 more attorneys just to satisfy the OPD’s “Managing for Results” objectives.
“If their numbers are accurate, then they were above the national standard five years ago,” said David Carroll, director of research and evaluation for The National Legal Aid and Defender Association.
“Obviously whatever they tried five years ago isn’t working,” Carroll said.
The NLADA was brought in to offer a national perspective to the subcommittee and to discuss tactics to help the OPD receive funding.
“There is a crisis here,” Carroll said. “We’ve seen other states approach those numbers and be litigated.”
Maryland ranks fifth highest in the number of indigent cases it defends, according to information from NLADA.
Maryland also ranks second in caseloads, but it spends the lowest amount, just $9.21 per capita, Carroll said. Maryland also sits at the bottom of the list when it comes to paying their attorneys – $35 an hour in court and $30 an hour out of court.
“The lawyers might as well as be working pro bono (for charity) at $30 an hour,” Chappell said.
The proposed three-year phase-in plan would increase staffing in rural areas first, then the suburbs and finally the metropolitan areas, costing the state $2.8 million for the first year. At least $3.9 million is needed to level the playing field between the OPD and the attorney general’s office, Chappell said.
Up until two years ago, both agencies – who have state-hired attorneys – were all on the same pay scale. Then the attorney general’s office received a two-grade pay raise. The difference is most prominent at the appellate division where attorneys general directly oppose public defenders.
“It should be equal pay for equal work,” Chappell added.
According to Chappell, $10.3 million is needed to ease the immediate dilemma. “We understand that we are in a financial hardship,” Chappell said. “We believe this is the long-term solution to our chronic understaffing.”