This is a tough thread to write. Federal public defense is facing devastating budget cuts for FY 2024, following House and Senate appropriation marks. If unchanged, we will be seriously underfunded. Nationally, this could mean losing 10 to 12% of on-board staff. 1/10
Panel payments to private counsel could be delayed for weeks or months. But as hard as this will be for those of us in public defense, it is our clients who will suffer—their dignity, their liberty, their constitutional rights. 2/10
We represent over 90% of people charged in federal court. All are poor; most are marginalized people of color who have already been subjected to discriminatory and disparate treatment at every juncture of the system. They will bear the brunt of these budget cuts. 3/10
When public defense is not funded, people spend more time in pretrial detention; jobs and homes are lost, families are separated; mental health and substance abuse disorders go untreated, causing people to spiral further downward. 4/10
When public defense is not funded, people are pressured into deals rather than fighting for their liberty; innocent people are convicted; procedural and police abuses go unchecked. People lose confidence in outcomes, leading to more appeals and collateral challenges. 5/10
When public defense is not funded, cases are delayed and dockets are canceled; there is no speedy prosecution or speedy defense, as trials and sentencing stack up. It impacts every facet of our criminal legal system, not just the defense. 6/10
It is a bitter irony that these cuts come on the 60th anniversary of Gideon, the Supreme Court case that recognized the right to counsel for the rich and the poor. It is equally ironic that these cuts will actually end up costing more money than they will save. 7/10
Over the past few years, federal public defense has stepped up in major ways, during the pandemic, during McGirt, during the January 6 prosecutions. We championed the ideal that even those who the government accuses of sedition a deserve a zealous defense. 8/10
We remain the most effective and efficient means to deliver constitutionally mandated counsel for poor people. But not if the FY 2024 marks go into effect. It will cripple our ability to represent our clients, and the impact will be lasting and costly, in immeasurable ways. 9/10
Budgets are moral documents. How we spend our money reflects our values. We should value our Constitution and the powerful check the defense provides for the impoverished and the marginalized people in our communities.
Now is the time to step up for public defense. 10/10