While the proposed budget of the Law Office of the Public Defender contains a $5 million increase over 2009 (a 9.9% increase), the Public Defender, retired Judge Abishi Cunningham, is seeking an additional $2.7 million, mainly to hire additional attorneys. Judge Cunningham asserted in a letter to Commissioners that by hiring more attorneys, the office could move cases faster that would result in a $14 million cost savings by cutting down the amount of time defendants spend in jail awaiting trial. The attorneys in his office dealing with felonies handle an average of 222 cases each. The American Bar Association (ABA) standard is 150. The attorneys in his office dealing with misdemeanors handle an average of 2,719 cases. The ABA standard is 400.
The office has sought some grants, but has not been successful. Judge Cunningham wants a full-time grant writer.
There is also an issue of parity between starting salaries and supervisor salaries of asst. public defenders vs asst. state’s attorneys. It was suggested that Human Resources should do a comparison of jobs which would be the appropriate way to determine if parity was appropriate.
The office has sought some grants, but has not been successful. Judge Cunningham wants a full-time grant writer.
There is also an issue of parity between starting salaries and supervisor salaries of asst. public defenders vs asst. state’s attorneys. It was suggested that Human Resources should do a comparison of jobs which would be the appropriate way to determine if parity was appropriate.
Commissioner Gainer suggested that the Public Defender should look to see how his supervisors’ pay compares to national standards. And any increase in pay should be implemented with a robust performance evaluation system.
Commissioner Peraica raised the issue of the huge costs in the budgets of the Public Defender, State’s Attorney, Chief Judge, Sheriff, and Circuit Court Clerk due to the number of people in the criminal court system charged with drug abuse charges (non-violent, self-abusers). I expect Commissioner Peraica will raise this with these other officials.
--Submitted by Observer Pris Mims
