defender, contract defender, and private attorney accepting court appointments should be made aware of the lawyers’ assistance programs available in the jurisdiction. Fair compensation, reasonable caseloads, adequate train- ing, and provision of support services are necessary to rec- ognizing the importance of the work and what is needed to provide effective representation to clients. But, there are also other things that are less dependent upon the availability of funds that defender program administrators can do to combat burnout. Recognition programs that honor victories, promotions, and longevity in the office are helpful in reducing burnout. Rotation of attorneys into other areas of practice can also be helpful. Attorneys choose public defense work because they be- lieve in certain principles — the importance of protecting constitutional rights and ensuring that only the guilty are punished, for example. Regular events, even CLE or other education events, at which these positive principles are cel- ebrated and the unity of purpose is venerated will also help to eliminate burnout. Several state defender organizations, including those in California, Wisconsin, New York, and Washington, have annual conferences that provide train- ing for CLE credits, as well as offer inspiration and net- working opportunities for defenders.
Hispanic Whites living in poverty was eight percent. By comparison, the percentage of non-Hispanic Blacks liv- ing in poverty was 23 percent and the percentage of His- panics living in poverty was 22 percent. 232 Another reason people of color make up such a high per- centage of the defendants utilizing public defense serv- ices is that minority communities are disproportionately policed, so minorities are disproportionately arrested and charged.
Eighty six percent of those stopped and searched in New York City are black or Latino. 233
A Florida lawyer responded to a racial disparity question in the survey by stating: “It is quite obvi- ous. Black people are … more likely to be arrested and have charges filed.” A Tennessee defender wrote: “Obviously, young black men get arrested more often for drug charges. Cops go into black neighborhoods and approach folks asking if they have crack or pipes on them.”
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A number of investigative reports have demonstrated the enormous disparity in arrests in Seattle. African Americans make up approximately eight percent of the population of Seattle. Yet, a recent six-month study of drug arrests showed that more than half of the people arrested for drug crimes in Seattle were African Ameri- can. 234 Similarly, a recent report concluded that African Americans in Seattle are also disproportionately ar- rested for obstruction, a misdemeanor often called “con- tempt of cop.” Indeed, “African Americans are arrested solely for the crime of obstruction eight times as often as whites when population is taken into account.” 235 Because of the higher rates of minority poverty and the higher rates at which minorities are arrested, public de- fenders and court-appointed counsel have a dispropor- tionate number of minority clients. As a result, the crisis in America’s public defense system has a much more acute impact on communities of color. The dra- matic under-funding and lack of oversight of America’s indigent defense services, described at length above, has placed people of color in a second class status in the American criminal justice system. Given the state of public defense services and the fre- quency with which those services are used by minority defendants, it is not surprising that minority defendants make up a disproportionate number of the wrongfully convicted. In fact, 64 percent of the people who have been wrongfully convicted of rape and then exonerated through DNA are Black, even though African Americans make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population. 236
Disproportionate Effect On Minority Communities
Criminal defendants of color are more likely to utilize publicly funded defense services than white defendants. For example, in Alabama in 2001, nearly 60 percent of the defendants using the indigent defense system were Black, despite the fact that African Americans only make up 26 percent of the state’s population. 231 Al- though actual statistics are rare, public defenders across the country report that their clients are almost entirely Black or Hispanic. For example, in response to a survey of public defenders conducted for this report, a Ten- nessee respondent wrote: “People arrested for and charged with simple possession are by and large from poor, minority communities.” Similarly, a New York lawyer wrote: “Over 90 percent of the people arrested in Brooklyn are Black or Hispanic.” In Lynnwood, Washington, during one of the site visits for this report, four out of seven men (57 percent) on the in-custody calendar were observably men of color. Lyn- nwood, Washington, is a city of about 35,000 people, which, according to the 2000 census has a racial makeup that is 74 percent White, 14 percent Asian, seven percent Latino, three percent African American, and one percent Native American. One reason African Americans and Latinos utilize indi- gent defense services more often is that they are more likely to live in poverty. In 2002, the percentage of non-
Problems
The Terrible Toll of America’s Broken Misdemeanor Courts
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