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Derwyn Bunton: Public Defense Reform Shows Both the Challenge and the Possibility of Post-Katrina New Orleans
In the second season of the HBO series True Detective, Frank Semyon (played by Vince Vaughn), tells a young boy who recently lost his father, "Sometimes a thing happens, splits your life. There's a before and after." For us New Orleanians, that "thing [that] happens" was Hurricane Katrina.
Before Katrina, justice was elusive and unwelcome -- flushed out of the New Orleans criminal justice system long before Hurricane Katrina flooded the courthouse and the jail in 2005. Orleans Parish Prison was packed with more than 6,000 people the day Katrina landed and most had little to no representation in the absence of an organized and institutionally competent public defender office.
Why Public Defense Funding Matters on the Local Level
OPD is facing a $1 million shortfall. The current budget crisis is brought about in part from underfunding and budget cuts by the state and in part from underfunding by the city in the form disparity with other criminal justice agents and the reliance on fines and fees.
But the budget crisis is brought about entirely as a result of an unstable, unreliable and inadequate user-pay regime of funding that makes it impossible to predict from year to year when the next extreme budget shortfall will occur. In the absence of sustainable funding by both the city and the state, we will continue to have a budget crisis every few years when funding by either entity inevitably falls short; the result of which are ultimately unhealthy for New Orleans' criminal justice system.
OPD Implements Restriction of Services as Funding Drops
New Orleans – Constitutionally-required legal representation is once again in jeopardy in New Orleans due to decreased revenue and budget shortfalls for the Orleans Public Defenders (OPD). Last week, Chief Defender Derwyn Bunton alerted criminal justice stakeholders that OPD was again short of necessary funding due to the continued decline of revenue both locally and at the state level.
OPD Partners with Tulane Medical School for Public Health Rotation
Fourth year Tulane medical student Max Shapiro is spending a month of his medical training this summer to immerse himself in the criminal justice system, the clients represented by the Orleans Public Defenders and the vast challenges defendants face at Tulane and Broad.
What may seem like an unusual partnership is an innovative initiative by Tulane School of Medicine to connect students to the New Orleans community, expose them to the challenges that underserved populations are facing today, and provide support to community-based agencies.
OPD Named MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge Partner in New Orleans
New Orleans, LA – Last week the MacArthur Foundation named New Orleans one of its 19 Safety and Justice Challenge sites and awarded the city a grant to reduce local jail population. Led by the Mayor’s office, the Orleans Public Defenders (OPD) will be a key partner in the project, along with the New Orleans City Council, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Judiciary, the New Orleans Police Department, the District Attorney, Baptist Community Ministries, and the Louisiana Institute for Public Health and Justice.
OPD Honors Willy Boggs and Steve Singer as 2015 Clyde Merritt Award Recipients
OPD recently honored Steve Singer and Willy Boggs as the 2015 recipients of the “Clyde Merritt Award,” recognizing their extraordinary dedication to public defense. Together, Singer and Boggs have revolutionized the face of public defense in New Orleans in the 10 years post-Hurricane Katrina. Both were instrumental in establishing the current client-centered, community-oriented defense practice that now sets the bar for indigent defense in Louisiana.
OPD’s clients are more justly represented, public defense and the New Orleans criminal justice system and far more fair and just because of their involvement. Quite simply, OPD would not be what it is today, without the passion, leadership and zealous commitment of Steve Singer and Willy Boggs.
