PROBLEMS IN MISDEMEANOR COURTS M ore than 35 years ago, Professor William Hellerstein of the Brooklyn Law School wrote “the criminal court, the misdemeanor court, is such an abomination that it destroys any myth or notion that I ever had about … American criminal justice.” 32 The statement could just as easily have been made today. The research, surveys, site visits, and interviews conducted by NACDL confirmed that the operation of misdemeanor courts in this country is grossly inadequate and frequently unjust. Witnesses overwhelmingly described programs bereft of the funding and resources necessary to afford even the most basic tools essential for fair adjudications. As a result, literally mil- lions of accused misdemeanants, particularly those unable to hire private counsel, and dis- proportionately people of color, routinely are denied the due process to which the Constitution entitles them. Almost 40 years later, the misdemeanor criminal justice system is rife with the same prob- lems that existed prior to the Argersinger decision. Legal representation for indigent defen- dants is absent in many cases. Even when an attorney is provided to defend a misdemeanor case, crushing workloads make it impossible for many defenders to effectively represent clients. Too often, counsel is unable to spend sufficient time on each of their cases. This forces even the most competent and dedicated attorneys to run afoul of their professional
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duties. Frequently, judges and prosecutors are complicit in these breaches, pushing defenders to take action with inadequate time, despite knowing that the defense attorney lacks appropriate in- formation about the case and the client. Absence of Counsel Despite the clear ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that persons accused of misdemeanors have a right to court-appointed counsel, a significant per- centage of defendants in misdemeanor courts never receive a lawyer to represent them. A Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report in 2000 cited a survey of jail inmates conducted in 1989 and 1996. In the survey, 28.3 percent of jail inmates charged with misdemeanors reported having had no counsel. 33
“[T]he criminal court, the misdemeanor court, is such an abomination that it destroys any myth or notion that I ever had about … American criminal justice.” — Professor William Hellerstein, Brooklyn Law School.
Minor Crimes, Massive Waste
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