MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin State Public Defenders Office testified Wednesday in support of a bill that would give the agency dozens more staff positions and reduce delays in the criminal justice system.
“Wisconsin’s justice system desperately needs more public defenders,” State Public Defender Jennifer Bias said. “When our clients have to wait months for an attorney, their constitutional rights are in jeopardy. Strengthening this agency will help judges, prosecutors and the entire system operate more efficiently.”
The Justice for All Act (AB 514/SB 546) would give the SPD 18 new attorney positions and 35 new support staff positions – the agency’s most substantial increase in staffing since 2009. The bill would also increase staffing for prosecutors and circuit court judges, with the goal of reducing case delays and jail overcrowding across the state.
Over the past two decades, criminal cases in Wisconsin have become increasingly complex. Cases that once consisted of a few police reports now routinely contain hundreds of hours of body camera footage and thousands of pages of digital records. As workloads have grown and criminal charging has increased, staffing for the SPD has not kept pace.
“Our attorneys are managing incredibly difficult workloads, and every time we lose an attorney to burnout, it compounds an already difficult situation. It’s a vicious cycle,” Regional Attorney Manager Kevin Smith told the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
Of critical importance are SPD support staff – the investigators, paralegals and client advocates who help to review and organize evidence and meet with clients. An acute lack of these support positions currently forces public defenders to take on vast amounts of extra work outside the courtroom.
In SPD’s Stevens Point region, for example, 30 attorneys covering 13 counties share just one paralegal. On average, prosecutors across the state have nearly double the support staff that assistant state public defenders receive.
“Justice cannot exist without the people required to deliver it,” Penny Thao, the regional office administrator for SPD’s Stevens Point region, said. “The consequences of our understaffing are dire: delayed cases, overwhelmed attorneys and clients waiting too long for representation, putting our state at risk of a constitutional crisis.”
The SPD urges lawmakers to pass AB 514/SB 546 and continue working on solutions to justice system delays.
