US public defenders could lose hundreds of staff in budget shortfall-officials

investing.com:

By Sarah N. Lynch and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. federal public defenders system could need to cut as many as 500 from its staff charged with protecting the rights of poor criminal defendants, because of a budgeting error by Congress that could leave it with a 3% to 5% shortfall, officials said.

That would mean a reduction of as many as 12% of the roughly 4,100 employees of the Federal Public and Community Defenders, the office that represents indigent federal criminal defendants, who could in turn be left to spend more time in jail awaiting trial.

The agency has already been found to be understaffed: A 2022 independent judiciary commission study found the offices need to add at least 250 more people to handle current case loads, defenders told Reuters.

An appropriations bill moving through the Republican-led House of Representatives would reduce spending during the 2024 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 for federal public defender services by about $42 million from its current $1.49 billion budget.

A version drafted by the Democratic-controlled Senate would lead to a nearly $71 million cut, federal defenders told Reuters in interviews.

The agency has already imposed a nationwide hiring freeze to brace for the cuts, according to a July 13 email seen by Reuters.

Officials warn the resulting layoffs and furloughs for public defenders, along with possible cuts and delays to payments to the 8,000 private court-appointed lawyers nationwide, would be of the magnitude experienced in 2013 when similarly-sized belt-tightening was imposed by Congress.

That year, the 87 chief judges of federal district courts warned the reductions had «a devastating and long-lasting impact» on the criminal justice system.

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