It’s hard to imagine a worse time for the wheels of justice to grind to a halt in local courtrooms. But, that’s exactly what’s happening this week as a work stoppage among poorly paid public defenders comes to a troubling head.
In late May, many of the private attorneys who typically defend indigent prisoners accused of crimes in Massachusetts stopped taking on new clients. The court-appointed lawyers – officially known as “public defender bar advocates” – are understandably upset that they haven’t been compensated fairly, based on rates paid to comparable lawyers in other states.
The labor action has been bubbling for months, but with a backlog of indigent defendants piling up since May 27, it has now hit a tipping point. Last week, a Supreme Judicial Court justice ordered that anyone held for seven days without legal counsel must be released from custody. The same ruling found that if the accused don’t get representation within 45 days, their cases could be dismissed outright.
According to a WBUR report, as of last week that includes some nearly 1,200 “unrepresented defendants,” including 70 people who were behind bars awaiting hearings. On Monday, according to the Boston Globe, a Boston Municipal Court judge was compelled to release four defendants, including one who was accused of battering his pregnant wife, due to the lack of legal representation. He has been released on his own recognizance, the Globe reported, with a GPS bracelet and a court order to stay at his mother’s house in Dorchester.
The pool of attorneys who take on these public defender roles was in decline well before this current crisis, in part because they’ve been poorly compensated for many years. Court-appointed lawyers in Massachusetts currently get about $65 an hour, well below other states in New England. According to the State House News Service, Maine pays $158 per hour, New Hampshire pays $125-$150, New York pays $158, and Rhode Island pays $112-$142.
Advocates for the attorneys say this large pay gap is the result of the state’s refusal to adjust for cost of living over two decades.
“We are not asking to be paid the same as lawyers on Wall Street in huge law firms,” Jen O’Brien, a bar advocate who is one of the organizers of the labor action said in a statement in May. “We are simply asking to be paid fairly, paid a rate that is on par with other northeastern states like Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island.”
O’Brien and her fellow lawyers deserve fair pay and better treatment from the Commonwealth. But the most recent budget signed last week once again failed to bump them up to even $100 an hour. It’s a major fail for the Legislature and the governor— and one that could have immediate and lethal consequences for the public.
Now, we are seeing violent (alleged) offenders being cut loose before they can even be arraigned. That’s a recipe for disaster for communities like Dorchester, where a disproportionate number of defendants are indigent and unable to afford their own counsel.
The accused are presumed innocent, entitled to a defense, and should not be left to languish in state and county jails awaiting hearings. And, yet, it’s the public that is most poorly served by this impasse.
We urge lawmakers and the governor to act swiftly to resolve this dispute. It’s essential to prevent the disruption of legal proceedings and, critically, to protect the public at-large in our neighborhoods.
-Bill Forry
