photo by: Mike Yoder

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St.

At a public hearing Sunday, more than a dozen people called for the State Board of Indigents’ Defense Services to open a public defender office in Douglas County as a way to help address inequity in the county legal system.

In remarks before the hearing at the Lawrence Arts Center, Heather Cessna, BIDS executive director, said the board would consider the comments made at the hearing when deciding whether it would fund a public defender office to represent those charged with felonies in Douglas County District Court. That funding decision will be made either Friday or Sept. 10 when the board meets at the Jayhawk Tower, 700 SW Jackson St. in Topeka, she said.

BIDS is considering expanding its public defender program into Douglas County because of an invitation from the Douglas County Commission to do so and because Gov. Laura Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice has recommended that all counties with more than 100,000 people have a public defender office, Cessna said.

Defendants facing felony charges who are unable to afford a lawyer in Douglas County are currently represented by court-appointed lawyers selected from a BIDS panel of defense attorneys, who are compensated at the rate of $100 an hour, Cessna said. That rate increased from $80 an hour on July 1 because of an additional $7.7 million the Kansas Legislature added to BIDS’ annual budget last session, she said.

Should BIDS agree to fund a public defender office in Douglas County, the Legislature would have to agree to fund the office in its 2022 session, Cessna said. With that hurdle and the logistics of hiring staff and establishing an office, it would be 18 to 24 months before the position was functioning, she said.

Because of the size of the caseload, a Douglas County public defender office would not end BIDS’ use of panel defense attorneys in Douglas County District Court, Cessna said.

“Any place we have a public defenders office, we would still have to have a robust panel of appointed attorneys,” she said. “It’s a supplement, not a replacement.”

Sixteen speakers at Sunday’s hearing said the opening of a public defender office would be a positive step toward addressing systemic racism in all levels of the criminal justice system and what speaker Sam Allison-Natale said was a system of unequal outcomes for the poor.

“It is said in our legal system you are better off being rich and guilty than poor and innocent,” he said.

Allison-Natale is the chair of the Kansas Holistic Defenders, a nonprofit organization that is poised to become a county-funded public defender office serving clients charged with misdemeanors in Douglas County.

A public defender office would reduce the time that poor defendants spend in jail — time that contributes to public health, mental health and child welfare concerns, as well as increased homelessness and unemployment, speakers said.

Among those commenting was Douglas County Commission Chair Shannon Portillo, co-chair of the governor’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice.

Portillo said the BIDS office for felony cases would be in addition to the program for misdemeanor offenses the County Commission is considering. She said studies showed that public defender offices increased accountability oversight and professional training among defense attorneys. The office would be a leadership asset in the county’s ongoing effort to reform its criminal justice system and reduce inmate numbers at the county jail with its disproportionate population of people of color.

Two defense attorneys cautioned against overselling what the office could accomplish.

Shaye Downing, who serves on the defense attorney panels in Douglas and Shawnee counties and on the Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, said that it was unlikely that a public defender would attend every defendant’s first court appearance as several of the speakers had suggested. She said only Johnson County did that, among the counties with such offices.

Greg Robinson, who served on the defense attorney panel in the past, said defendants would still be at a disadvantage in the legal system because the public defender office would not have the resources of the district attorney. He also argued that public defenders should be paid the same as county or district attorneys, which would reduce frequent employee turnover.

Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez did not express a clear preference regarding a public defender office, although she did say that she was impressed with the way the current system worked and noted that prosecutors want defendants represented by effective counsel because it is a constitutional right and helps to ensure that plea agreements or convictions will be upheld on appeal.

Cessna said Friday’s 1:30 p.m. BIDS meeting would be open to the public and that the board normally welcomed public comment. She noted that the board was taking written comment through Wednesday and encouraged that those comments be submitted through the agency’s website, sbids.org.