CSAC would like to share two reports that the Office of the State
Public Defender’s (OPSD) Indigent Defense Improvement Division
has created that might be helpful as you consider your public
defense systems.
California’s 58 Public Defense Systems is a
summary of OSPD’s 2023 statewide survey combined with other
relevant data. The report displays the types of public defense
systems across the state, disparities in access to non-attorney
staff by levels of conflict representation, incarceration rates
by county and legal deserts. Finally, it shows the discrepancy in
access to state and federal grant funding for prosecutors versus
public defense systems. Feel free to reach out to me if you would
like the full data report from our 58-county survey.
Understanding the National Public Defense Workload Study: A
practical guide to mapping common California
offenses is a brief summary of RAND’s 2023 National
Public Defense Workload Study which develops new national
standards as to how many cases an attorney can reasonably have
and provide effective assistance of counsel. Our guide
includes OSPD’s interpretation of how it applies to California
law. It is critical that systems carefully track caseload
information, including the severity of cases, to assess workloads
and attorney staffing needs in public defense systems. We have
also created a tool to assist counties in this caseload tracking.
The tool can be used by an individual contractor or on a system
level (see attached).
You are invited to join the OPSD for a discussion of both
reports in their next Virtual Quarterly Meetup: County
Administrators, Analysts and County Counsels on January
17th, 2024 from 1-2 pm.
Register here to attend.
