The Orleans Public Defenders Office (OPD) officially launched its campaign to create an equitable criminal legal system in New Orleans, calling on the Mayor and City Council to establish funding and resource equity in New Orleans’ criminal legal system. In September, OPD submitted its appropriation request of $5.5 million to the Mayor for the 2020 city budget. That budget reflects nearly 85 percent of the appropriation historically given to our direct system counterpart – the District Attorney – whose 2019 appropriation was $6.6 million.
We are operating under our third Restriction of Services (ROS) plan in seven years. As a consequence, we are unable to assign investigators to most cases, and soon we will have to cease providing counsel in cases where we have ethical conflicts. Louisiana’s and New Orleans’ user-pay criminal legal system desperately needs reform – it is inadequate, unreliable, and unstable. It is also inequitable and unfair. The effects of these inequities are manifest: wrongful convictions, overdetention, mass incarceration, inefficiency, waste, high costs, and community distrust.
OPD represents 85 percent of all criminal cases in Orleans Parish, and is responsible for thousands of municipal and traffic court cases each year. In 2018, OPD represented nearly 25,000 cases. Yet, OPD received less than one quarter the local appropriation given to the District Attorney. In 2019, New Orleans will spend a staggering $258 million to arrest, prosecute and incarcerate our citizens, but just $1.8 million to protect innocence, provide accountability and ensure a fair and equitable criminal legal system.
“The funding and resource disparities baked into our criminal legal system are inequitable and unfair,” said Chief Defender Derwyn Bunton. “Funding inequities – which prompted a hiring freeze – have OPD so depleted, it is now a question of whether our criminal legal system can provide justice at all for poor people. The distribution of funding and resources is inequitable and unfair, and our ability to provide ethical, professional, and constitutional representation – mandated by law – is in serious jeopardy. Providing OPD with an appropriation equaling 85 percent of the District Attorney’s appropriation, represents a major step in the march toward a more equitable, just, and fair criminal legal system. This change solidifies New Orleans’ commitment to equity and fairness in a system where it is truly needed.”
OPD in crisis jeopardizes the great progress of current reforms. New Orleans is now an established national leader in criminal legal system reform. However, without OPD as a robust partner, efforts like jail size reduction and creative prevention services are likely to fail. Research continues to show public defense is one of the best criminal justice investments leaders can make to lower costs, recidivism, and harm to the community. Properly funded public defenders strengthen the health of our community by ensuring fairness, protecting innocence and holding power accountable.
“OPD remains ready to work together with the Mayor and City Council on a sustainable, long-term solution to funding equity. It is the only way we will end this cycle of funding shortfalls and service restrictions that further harm poor people and disenfranchised communities in New Orleans,” said Bunton. “Our criminal legal system has grown so large, without any counterbalance. Public defenders are supposed to be that balance. And yet we remain woefully out-resourced and underfunded relative to our criminal legal system counterparts.”
A commitment to equity in our criminal legal system requires an equitable distribution of funding and resources, allowing all parts of the criminal legal system to do their jobs and uphold their obligations. Equity ensures each part of our criminal legal system is actually capable of working toward fairness and justice. OPD asks the New Orleans community and decision makers to work together with us to find the political will and structural solutions necessary to move our criminal legal system more toward equity and justice by equitably funding public defense.
To follow this campaign on social media, search by the #NoEquityNoJustice and #NewOrleansDeservesEquity hashtags.
