Public defender plan to be reviewed

We have talked before about the possible creation of a public defender's office for Harris County. Commissioners Court approved a study of whether the county should adopt such a thing back in April. Now the report is ready to be presented.

Public defenders also would be assigned to some defendants with mental retardation or significant mental illnesses in the four district courts and all 15 county criminal courts under the plan crafted by the county's budget and management services office.

The plan, submitted as part of the court's annual mid-year budget review, offers a long-awaited but early look at the kind of system Harris County could adopt. A final vote is not expected until shortly before the court adopts the 2009-10 budget in March.

It remains unclear if supporters of the proposal could muster enough support on the five-member board to prevail.

The only step court members are expected to take today is authorizing further studies by a team of representatives from county and district courts, the county attorney's office, each Commissioners Court member's office, the criminal defense bar, the Texas Fair Defense Project and the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense.

The team would evaluate how the office should be structured and what it would cost. It also would review proposals from outside groups interested in running all or part of the office for the county.

Commissioners Court would have to approve any of the team's recommendations.

So to begin with, we shouldn't expect much. That's good, because so far it doesn't sound like much.

Criminal defense lawyer Tate Williams said the plan does not go far enough to eliminate the appearance of impropriety.

"If the judges get to control who gets what case, you're always going to have the allegations of bias and favoritism," Williams said.

He said he would oppose any public defender plan unless the legislature capped the number of cases each attorney could handle and required counties to provide those offices with the same money and access to resources given to prosecutors.

A 15-member Public Defense Board would oversee the whole system, setting those standards, appointing the director and approving the annual budget.

Commissioner Steve Radack said he opposes giving the Public Defense Board authority over a county department. He said the report submitted to the court raised more questions than it answered.

"If it can save the taxpayers money, that's one thing," Radack said. "If it actually provides something better than what we're providing today, we can talk about it."

Well, as we've discussed before, all that is supposed to be the point of this exercise. The question is whether or not this plan can achieve those goals. I'd like to hear from people like State Sen. Rodney Ellis, who's been the biggest local proponent of a public defenders office, and Grits to see what they think about it. Right now, there's not enough information to go on.

UPDATE: Grits weighs in.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 23, 2008 to Local politics