State providing first-time funding for Butler County public defender’s offices
Butler County officials are curious to know how much money the state is allocating in first-time funding for the public defender’s office, and how it can be spent.
The state budget includes $7.5 million for public defender’s offices in the 67 counties. Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed $10 million for indigent defense, but the amount was reduced in negotiations with the legislature before he signed the budget into law in December.
State lawmakers created the Indigent Defense Advisory Committee to determine how to allocate the money to counties and make rules for how it can be spent. The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency has until Feb. 12 to appoint members to the committee, which must include public defenders and judges from across the state, academics and legislative appointees.
The U.S. and state Constitutions grant people charged with crimes the right to have access to an attorney. The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires federal and state governments to provide free counsel for indigent defendants in felony cases, according to the 2021 Pennsylvania Indigent Criminal Defense Services Funding and Caseloads study that was ordered by the joint Legislative Budget and Finance Committee.
Pennsylvania and South Dakota were the only states that provided no money for indigent criminal defense, according to the study.
The study also points out that county public defenders provide representation in about half of all criminal cases in Pennsylvania.
Of the 151,474 total criminal cases in the state in 2020, public defenders were involved in 78,459, or 51.8%, of the cases. The percentage decreased from over 55% in 2019 and 2018. An average of 54% of all criminal cases had public defender representation, according to the study.
Butler County public defender Charles Nedz said Friday, Jan. 26, that the state funding is long overdue.
“Pennsylvania is one of only two states that provide no funding for the public defender’s office,” Nedz said. “You can imagine the distress that can put on county budgets.”
The county budget includes $1.34 million for the public defender’s office, which employs seven attorneys, an office manager, two clerical employees and a part-time investigator.
Each attorney handles about 285 cases a year, which include criminal, juvenile and mental health cases, but that number doesn’t tell the whole story, Nedz said.
A public defender can spend several hundred hours on a homicide case, but resolve retail theft case in 10 minutes, he said.
“We’re very busy,” Nedz said.
The county spends about $6.96 per capita and $650 per case for indigent defense, and has nearly doubled the public defender’s budget since 2012, when it $743,945, said Leslie Osche, chairwoman of the county commissioners.
Osche said the office’s staff has increased from having seven full-time employees and one part-time employee in 2013.
“Everyone is entitled to a fair defense. We’ve taken that to heart as a county and invested in the public defender’s office,” Osche said. “We do a pretty good job of providing ample defense.”
She and Commissioner Kevin Boozel said they believe the county will receive a small amount of money for indigent defense from the state.
“I’m very pleased to see them make an effort,” Boozel said. “It’s a drop in the bucket, but a step in the right direction.”
He said requiring counties to pay for indigent defense, but providing no funding is an unfunded mandate from the state.
According to the study, the 10 counties with the highest indigent defense expenditures in 2020 and those expenditures were: Philadelphia County — $48.5 million, Allegheny County — $9.2 million, Montgomery County — $5.4 million, Chester County — $4.3 million, Bucks County — $3.8 million, Dauphin County — $3.8 million, Delaware County — $3.8 million, Berks County — $3.5 million, Lancaster County — $3.4 million and York County — $3.0 million.
The 10 counties that spent the least in 2020 and the amounts were: Cameron County — $35,559, Sullivan County — $41,361, Forest County — $58,546, Fulton County — $86,203, Montour County — $121,250, Mifflin County- $141,921, Warren County — $165,349, Elk County — $166,674, Perry County — $186,116 and Snyder County — $190,426.
