Public defenders, KSP plead for state funding

By RONNIE ELLIS

FRANKFORT — Walk into a Kentucky courtroom, take a seat and look around. You’re likely to see an attorney look through the gallery quizzically while a bailiff or judge calls out a name.

The person who answers to that name is likely the attorney’s client. The attorney looks briefly at a file folder, then whispers momentarily to his client, the person he just met. Than a plea is entered, sometimes a guilty one and the person is scheduled for sentencing.

That’s justice in Kentucky, according to Ed Monahan, director of the state Department of Public Advocacy, the agency which represents indigent persons who can’t afford their own attorneys. Monahan was pleading with lawmakers Tuesday not to cut an already strapped agency further

“Our caseload (per attorney) is now 450 and that’s still more than any lawyer can competently handle,” Monahan told a budget review subcommittee. “Sometimes there’s not enough time to even talk to the client.”

DPA handles 147,000 cases on a budget this year of $44.7 million, spending roughly $208 on each trial, said Monahan, adding that he doubted any of the attorneys on the committee would be willing to tray a case for that amount. Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposed budget recommends less in each of the two coming years for DPA, $44.3 million in FY 2011 and $43.9 in FY 2012.

Monahan said he supports a strong prosecutorial system and supports prosecutors’ funding request, but he said the right to competent counsel for defendants was crucial to an effective criminal justice system. He told lawmakers a pilot program of social workers in two DPA offices who arranged alternative sentencing for non-violent offenders with drug and mental health problems saves the state the annual average cost of incarceration of $19,000 for every defendant not sent to jail.

The recidivism rate for those who go through the program is half of that for those sent to jail – and that, Monahan said, saves the state money twice: the first time by avoiding the cost of incarceration and later when they don’t return to crime and the court system.

Committee Chair Jesse Crenshaw, D-Lexington, is looking for ways to save money with the state facing somewhere between a $1 billion and $1.5 billion shortfall and the corrections budget closing in on $488 million – nearly half the low end of the shortfall estimate.

Monahan said funding DPA at adequate levels, and especially expanding the social worker program, could save the state money now spent on incarceration.

“We can do better for you. We can do better for the commonwealth,” Monahan said.

So can Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer, who also explained how his agency is dealing with the budget crunch. Brewer said KSP now has 876 sworn officers statewide, but 10 are on injury leave and 14 more are on active military duty, leaving him only 852 the lowest force since 1989. Vacancies aren’t being filled and more vehicles are driven longer – 467 of the total fleet have more than 80,000 miles and 300 have more than 100,000 miles.

“On any given day one-fifth of the workforce are in cars with 100,000 or more miles on them,” Brewer said.

KSP has even cut the number of officers on detail during the legislative session. Troopers are driving fewer miles and vacancies are left open, including 21 at the state crime labs which affects criminal prosecutions in local jurisdictions. Brewer said his funding priorities are to maintain his workforce levels and to get money for new training facilities to train new officers.

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.