"Project Aims To Attract, Train Public Defenders," is by Karen Sloan of the National Law Journal. Here's the beginning:
Being a public defender is a tough job. Being a public defender in the South — which has a reputation for heavy caseloads, harsh sentencing and tough criminal laws — is especially challenging.
Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have the three highest per-capita incarceration rates in the nation, a 2012 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found. The five states with the most prisoners serving life without parole for nonviolent crimes are all in the South, according to a recent American Civil Liberties Union report.
Large caseloads aren't unique to the region, but studies have found that public defenders in New Orleans spend an average of seven minutes with clients, and the average caseload for a public defender in Miami-Dade County is 500 felonies and 250 misdemeanors — far more than the American Bar Association's recommended caseload of 150 felony and 400 misdemeanor cases.
Those challenges are precisely why the South needs more young, passionate public defenders who are dedicated to improving indigent defense, according to Jonathan Rapping, the president and founder of Gideon's Promise, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that trains and advocates for public defenders throughout the South. To that end, Gideon's Promise has launched the Law School Partnership Project, aimed at making it easier for Southern public defenders to hire talented new law graduates.
Related posts are in the indigent defense category index.
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