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.
“Gov. Gary Herbert earmarked $5 million in ongoing funding for Utah’s Indigent Defense Commission, created in 2016 to tackle a series of problems that places Utah’s system behind those in the vast majority of states. The commission, which currently has a $1.3 million annual budget, doles out state funds to help counties and cities cover the cost of public defenders for poor Utahns.“
Salt Lake Tribune
December 10, 2018
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