The Empire Page

When the public sector is hurting for funds programs that aid the poor often suffer.  To find out if that was the case for poor people accused of crimes we talked to Jonathan E. Gradess, executive director of the NYS Defenders Association.

Q#1:   What year was the New York State Defenders Association founded and what led to its formation?

NYSDA was formed in 1967 in the wake of the United States Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright in which the Court said no one should be hauled into court without counsel simply because they couldn’t afford a lawyer. The lawyers hired to run the newly created state defender offices and assigned counsel programs and the heads of legal aid societies contracting in the counties thought there needed to be a centralized organization devoted to the improvement of the nascent system. They formed NYSDA.

 

Q#2:   When is the Public Defense Backup Center created and what does it do?

In 1978, the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program gave us seed funding to begin the Backup Center on Long Island; we quickly became inundated with calls for help from all over the state. More and more, as we worked with lawyers and clients throughout New York, we saw the need for a more centralized, reliably-funded response. We sought and received a state appropriation, and the Legislature began to see the defects in the state’s public defense system. The Backup Center provides assistance to the 6,000 lawyers providing representation to the poor in New York. It provides research and advice, conducts training programs, maintains a website, publishes a newsletter, and maintains an expert witness bank. The Backup Center also has deployed and supports a case management system in 33 public defense sites in New York.

 

Q#3:     Explain how the Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright impacted the criminal justice system in NYS at the time of the decision and over the past 45 years.

The Supreme Court decision in Gideon, combined with People v. Witenski, a New York case two years later, propelled New York to address the need for a public defense system. In 1965, the State created Article 18B of the County Law, which imposed on the counties the obligation to fund and administer local provision of counsel to the poor.

 

Q#4     How would you grade New York in fulfilling the requirements of Gideon in 2009?

New York is failing to fulfill the requirements of Gideon. In 2009, the statutory system created in 1965 is a sprawling, defective, balkanized bureaucracy in which too little funding and a lack of standards combine with a lack of accountability and local under-resourcing to propel people to prison and jail without having their day in court. The time that clients reasonably expect their lawyer to have – time to interview, listen, investigate, file motions, find witnesses, negotiate, research the law, and decide on a course of action – is simply not available to public defense lawyers in New York. Clients are often railroaded by a lack of resources, even when they are represented by the best and the brightest. Caseloads as high as 2,000 cases a year combine with a lack of investigators and expert resources driven by localities’ desire to cap the cost of counsel. Threats are made to the independence of counsel every day, particularly to those who are most aggressive and desirous of fighting for their clients. It is an intractably toxic environment in which workload is overwhelming, salary is low, and turnover is great. The State has neglected public defense, and sooner or later it has to remedy the situation.

 

Q#5:   How has the current economic crisis impacted the delivery of defense services at the county level? at the state level?

The current economic crisis further damaged the delivery of defense services at the county level by the slashing of budgets, worsened by a state-enforced increase in local pension contributions. It has strengthened an overt fear of the costs associated with meeting standards and has encouraged the redirecting of state money that is supposed to be spent to improve the quality of public defense services.

 

Q#6:     Jonathan, you have been involved with the Defenders Association for a long time.  I’m sure that has meant many sacrifices for you and your family. What propelled you to devote your entire professional career to the defense of poor people accused of crimes?

I have been involved with the Defenders Association since 1978, 11 years after it was founded. I was and am its first executive director, and I also direct its Justice Fund. I have been propelled to devote my entire professional career to the defense of poor people accused of crimes who need an advocate because the system is unjust and because they need someone who can see in them the dignity which is theirs to claim. The current system fails them. It fails all who must bear the fiscal and social costs of wrongful convictions, overuse of incarceration, and lack of trust in the justice system.

 

Q#7:   What can the readers of the Empire Page do if they want to follow developments in the indigent criminal defense arena?

Readers of the Empire Page can do a lot by supporting legislation (S.6002/A.8793) now before the Legislature and the Governor. They can watch developments in the public defense arena by visiting the website of the Justice Fund’s Campaign for an Independent Public Defense Commission, www.newyorkjusticefund.org. They can help by reading and commenting on the blog page there, joining the Campaign, and being with us to bring about the changes that are needed. They can contribute financially at www.newyorkjusticefund.org\donate (not tax deductible) and www.nysda.org (tax deductible).

I can be reached at 518.465.0519.