Defendants on the lower end of the socio-economic scale find themselves at the mercy of public defenders who are swamped with cases, understaffed, and underfunded. Research shows that even before mass incarceration accelerated in the 1980s, overburdened systems of indigent defense struggled to meet the 6th Amendment constitutional mandate. Public defenders usually have the deck stacked against them due to discovery laws favoring prosecutors and lack of sufficient resources.
"A lot of the people who are prosecuted in Berkshire County are not hardcore criminals; they're sinners. They're people who screwed up. They had a bad day and now they have to pay for it. And I agree with that."
The Berkshire Eagle
June 11, 2018
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