Funding Shortfalls Once Again Cause Service Restrictions
New Orleans – The Orleans Public Defenders once again began waitlisting conflict cases – cases where ethics rules prevent OPD’s main office from representing someone – effective last Friday, May 3, 2019 due to continued funding shortfalls and the unsustainable lack of necessary resources. Contract conflict panel contracts will no longer be issued to contract attorneys representing OPD cases in criminal and juvenile court. Chief Defender Derwyn Bunton alerted judges and the Mayor’s office last week, as well as announced in a letter to all criminal legal system stakeholders, that OPD can no longer continue the current pace of representation under continued chronic underfunding of public defense.
News of service restrictions and the fallout of Louisiana’s user pay system – is not new. OPD instituted full service restrictions twice in the last seven years, and Chief Defender Bunton made clear at the budget hearings last fall that OPD faced the same prospects unless a significant increase in funding occurred.
“Funding for our criminal legal system is broken and the truth is, we simply don’t have enough funding to constitutionally, ethically and professionally do the work demanded of us,” said Chief Defender Derwyn Bunton. “Further waitlisting, case refusals, court stoppages and potential layoffs remain unfortunate possibilities that ultimately negatively affect our community’s health and safety.”
While the New Orleans City Council and the Mayor’s office provide funding to OPD, the stark local and state inequities in our criminal legal system funding are glaring. Chronically inadequate funding from court fines, fees, and costs, coupled with the inequitable distribution of criminal legal system dollars, is leading to potentially catastrophic effects for public defense and the administration of the criminal legal system in New Orleans.
Under the implemented restriction of services plan, OPD expects to decrease representation where capacity and resources are inadequate. Capital representation ceased three years ago and the hiring freeze currently in place increases the already high workloads for existing staff.
Reform advocates, stakeholders and members of the New Orleans community continue to call on the Council and Mayor to fund OPD and public defense equitably. Years of chronic underfunding and an over-reliance on fines and fees creates a continued cycle of crisis – bringing wrongful convictions, delays, higher jail costs, and higher jail populations. Yet, OPD remains critically under-resourced, and far below parity in funding when compared to other criminal legal system entities – despite handling nearly 85% of the workload in Orleans Parish. This system can’t function if one piece is out-resourced 5 to 1 by the DA; and 170 to 1 by the New Orleans Police Department. These budget inequities continue to highlight the flaws in Louisiana’s user-pay legal system.
With dignity, justice and hope at the core of our vision, the mission of the Orleans Public Defenders is to fight for our clients by providing excellent client-centered representation, reforming the system and partnering with the community.
 2019 New Orleans Budget Approval release.pdf |
