24 California counties have no Office of the Public Defender

Everyone has a right to the effective assistance of counsel. If a person cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for them, according to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Miranda v. Arizona ruling.

However, there are 24 counties in California without a public defender’s office. Instead counties rely on contract-model systems, which are in primarily small and rural county areas, according to the Office of the State Public Defender.

The initial purpose of a public defender was to provide effective assistance of counsel to protect detainees from shyster attorneys and unchecked prosecutors, according to the Legal History of the California Public Defender.

“It is still the duty of the State and of the court, its instrument, quite as much to protect the innocent as to punish the guilty,” said Clara Shortridge-Foltz in 1897, who was an early advocate for indigent defense.

The abstract idea of a public defender was proposed by Shortridge-Foltz, who made history as the first woman to practice law in the State of California. She spearheaded a movement across the United States to create an elected Office of the Public Defender. 

In 1914 Los Angeles County made history as the first California government to create an Office of the Public Defender to represent people in criminal and civil defense, according to the Legal History of the California Public Defender.

Butte County does not have an OPD. It has fallen behind other California counties in the practice of  public legal defense. A public defender’s office establishes accountability, transparency, and public trust. The contract model has weaknesses such as no central accountability or caseload limits. These exceed professional standards, according to the Chico Sol. 

A public defender’s office has investigators who collect evidence, accept client calls, and coordinate with the court clerks. The office also uses social workers to connect clients to behavioral health services, and perform critical mitigation and sentencing preparation, stated the OSPD.

The legality of practicing law using tax payers’ money without any oversight does not give indigent detainees the fair representation that the OPD was originally intended to provide, according to the Chico Sol. 

The Board of State and Community Corrections compared nine California counties with an OPD to those with similar populations, such as Butte County, who use contract attorneys to represent detainees. 

In the comparisons the BSCC used data from various county jails’ daily population as a metric in the contract model, versus the public defender comparisons. In the counties examined there was a substantial difference in jail rate between the counties that used contract models compared to those with a public defenders office. 

Butte County’s jail detention rate was 70% higher than counties with an Office of the Public Defender; indigent defense in California has a 62% higher jail rate than counties with a Office of the Public defender, according to the OSPD.

Of the nine counties that examined violent crime, those using the indigent contract model had crime rates 50% higher than those with an OPD. The violent crime rate is more than 100% higher in Butte County, stated the OSPD.

A 2006 report by the Judicial Council of California revealed that counties with a contract model have an 80.5% conviction rate through guilty pleas. The OPD system has a 69.4% felony conviction rate resulting from guilty pleas.

The OSPD’s Indigent Defense Improvement Division offers training for social workers, investigators, appointed private counsel, and legal defense for the youth. 

Proposed Senate Bill 485, authored by California Assemblymember Eloise Reyes, would bring reform to the state’s public defenders’ system. Ensuring constitutional rights to counsel is safeguarded, according to the Vanguard.

The Bill passed the Senate with a 36-0 vote and the Assembly with a 46-9 vote. If Governor Gavin Newsom signs the bill, it would mandate a data collection system. The system would provide the number of indigent clients assigned to a public defender, according to Cal Matters.