That's the title of an OpEd in today's Wall Street Journal by former federal judges Paul Cassell and Nancy Gertner. It's subtitled, "Steep budget cuts compromise the justice system and won't save money in the long run."
The American justice system is based on the principle that justice is only possible when everyone accused of a crime, rich and poor alike, has access to effective defense counsel. This is why state and federal governments have a constitutional obligation to provide attorneys for those who are unable to afford them.
Unfortunately, due to the combination of general budget austerity and sequestration, the federal public defender system—a model of effective indigent defense for the past 40 years—is being decimated. As former federal judges from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, we both understand that these shortsighted cuts threaten not only to cripple the federal defender system, but to disrupt the entire federal judiciary—without producing the promised cost savings.
A decrease of nearly 10% in the federal public defender budget for 2013 has already resulted in layoffs and up to 20 days of furloughs in many federal defender offices. In a number of states, federal courts have been forced to delay criminal cases because of public defender furloughs and layoffs.
Earlier coverage of the federal budget sequester begins at the link.
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