From the Kitsap Sun (WA):
A pot of state cash, mandated to improve Kitsap County’s criminal defense services for people who cannot afford them, will likely swell to almost a half-million dollars next year.
County officials, unsure of how to spend the money, hired a consultant in 2007 to study Kitsap’s public defense system. The results of the study could lead to the creation of a new county position and a “comprehensive” plan for the program.
Kitsap County Clerk Dave Peterson, who manages contracts with the cadre of private law-firms providing indigent defense, applied for a state grant that delivered about $103,000 in 2006 and $208,000 in 2007. It will likely mean another $208,000 this year from the state’s Office of Public Defense. No money has yet been promised past 2009.
He sought outside help figuring out how to use it. “We wanted to take a look at the public defense system we were using,” Peterson said, adding that once they examined it, they would “better know how to spend the money.”
The Legislature put forth the money beginning in 2005. Their rationale: a lawsuit that alleged a public defender in Grant County had been handling a staggering, yet lucrative, felony caseload that he managed by infrequently going to trial. The defender also had an inordinately high percentage of guilty pleas.
In Kitsap, a felony case other than murder is contracted to private firms for $1,069 plus hourly and flat rates for future proceedings. Bar associations typically recommend a limit of 150 cases per attorney.
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