Public defender shortfall may soon affect representation

The budget shortfall in the 16th Judicial District public defender’s office has gotten so large that, by the end of March, all defendants not in jail will be put on a waiting list to receive representation.
There’s no word on how long those defendants may have to wait to get an attorney, said District Defender Cecelia Bonin, who runs the public defender’s office.
The office doesn’t have enough money to get through its fiscal year ending June 30 without making substantial budget cuts, Bonin said. The district covers St. Mary, St. Martin and Iberia parishes.
Bonin has developed a potential plan of action that involves cutting staff, attorneys and workloads beginning March 31.
“In order to make it through the fiscal year, we will be dedicating the re-sources that we have to people who are incarcerated,” Bonin said.
All defendants who aren’t incarcerated will be put on a waiting list, and Bonin has no idea how long those defendants will be on the waiting list, she said. The cuts will affect felony defendants who aren’t in jail along with misdemeanor and juvenile defendants.
“We are very, very regretful that this is happening and wish it weren’t,” she said.
Bonin, who took office less than a year ago, had to make big cuts almost immediately upon taking office, she said.
Public defender’s offices can go into what’s called “restriction of services” if expenses exceed revenues or if the attorney’s workloads are “too much to handle such that they cannot give reasonably effective assistance of counsel to each of their clients,” Bonin said.
Bonin expects her office to meet both those thresholds in May.
If the office doesn’t make any cuts, it will run out of money by May 11, Bonin said.
Slightly over 60 percent of the office’s funding comes from local sources, and less than 40 percent of funding comes from the state, Bonin said.
Local funds regularly fluctuate up and down. But the office is averaging $82,500 per month in local revenues with average expenses running $142,400 per month, she said.
So far this fiscal year, there’s been about a 17 percent dip in local funds and a 7 percent decrease in state funds, which translates to $163,600 in less funds collected, Bonin said.
“It’s very frightening,” Bonin said.
Morgan City Court Judge Kim Stansbury said he has “a duty and obligation to hold court and administer justice expeditiously” regardless of the circumstances.
“I can’t shut court down, not going to happen,” Stans-bury said. Under the U.S. and state constitutions, all people charged with crimes, both felonies and misdemeanors, have the right to counsel, he said.
About 80 percent of people who come through Morgan City qualify to have a public defender, he said.
Stansbury handles just misdemeanor and juvenile cases. Stansbury is working to make sure there’s a public defender to represent all defendants that come into city court, he said.
However, Stansbury hopes for that solution to just be a temporary fix until the district public defender’s office is able to provide public defenders to city court, he said.
“I’m going to have a public defender. It may not be from the public defender’s office, but I’m going to have someone there,” Stansbury said.
Stansbury also plans to talk to state legislators to propose a bill to allow the city court of Morgan City to run its own public defender’s office because city court collects sufficiently to do so, he said.
State Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, said any time a local entity “can solve its own problem with some authorizing legislation, my inclination is to do it.”
Public defenders should focus their resources especially on the most heinous cases so convictions don’t get overturned on technicalities for not having adequate representation, Jones said.
State Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, said she recognizes that money is tight in the public defender’s office, and the attorneys “are over-worked and underpaid for sure,” she said.
Choosing the option to prioritize certain cases may be the best way for the office to handle the budget shortfall, Amedee said. Amedee hopes the office has considered other options as well before cutting back on services, she said.