Prison

Would you want responsibility for Oregon’s troubled system of public defense?

It is failing.

Would you want responsibility for public defense if you had little control over it?

Gov. Tina Kotek does not. She does not want the public defense system moved under the executive branch. But if it is moved, she wants the authority to remove the executive director and the members of the commission.

We don’t blame her. Responsibility with no control is a recipe for a foul up.

We read about this recently thanks to an article by Oregon Public Broadcasting about the bill that would do it — Senate Bill 337.

The bigger problem, though, is that the bill may not really fix the system’s troubled problems – no matter where public defenders are moved or who has what control.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declared that anyone accused of a crime and facing loss of liberty is entitled to have an attorney provided at government expense.

In Oregon, that does not happen every time.

Oregon’s public defense system fails at that function. On May 22 there were more than 1,900 individuals in Oregon without a public defender. That includes people facing felony charges. It includes people in custody and out of custody. You can see the numbers here: tinyurl.com/ORunrepresented.

It also includes some people who are charged only with misdemeanors. Misdemeanors matter, too. Even a misdemeanor charge can disrupt a life.

The problem with Oregon’s public defense system is a simple one: When someone is accused in some counties, there is not a public defender available to defend them.

The solution is not simple. Oregon needs lawyers in place to provide that service. It’s not just about enough compensation to make the job attractive. That is part of it. It is also about workload. Public defenders can be swamped with so many cases even the hardest-working and committed among them can feel overwhelmed. They look for other career paths.

The bill is not much of a solution. The Oregon Public Defense Commission has not had a great plan nor been collecting all the data it should. The bill does try to take steps in that direction. It does something. Don’t expect it to solve Oregon’s public defense problem.

There is a debate to be had about how Oregon’s Public Defense Commission should be placed within the structure of Oregon government. Public defenders should be immunized from political pressures and focused on the interest of their clients. But that doesn’t matter as much if Oregon continues to fail to have the lawyers in place to defend people who may lose their liberty.