There’s a couch in the Department of Public Advocacy’s Pikeville office with two pillows and a blanket. On a table beside the couch is an iron and ironing board. There’s a stocked kitchen and bathroom.
The signs are everywhere, and not only do they show an overworked group of six attorneys. They also show the desperate need for help not only in Pike, but for public defenders all over the state.
In a recent press release announcing the newest data on caseloads for public defenders, State Public Advocate Ernie Lewis said something must be done to decrease the workloads of the state’s public advocates; not only for their sakes, but for the sake of the defendants.
“The people of the commonwealth want to believe that the quality of justice provided an accused does not depend upon the money available to pay a lawyer. These caseloads threaten that fundamental belief,” he wrote.
Harolyn Howard, directing attorney for the Department of Public Advocacy’s Pikeville office, said the attorneys in the Pike office, which also covers Floyd County, have seen their caseloads increase by 10 percent. Instead of the recommended 350 cases per year, the six attorneys are averaging 477.3.
And in recent years, the addition of drug, family and other courts, combined with a known drug epidemic that is driving more and more people to commit crime, the numbers don’t seem to be slowing down.
Besides the toll this takes on the individual attorneys, defendants also are on the losing end, whether it be by having to wait longer to go to court or by not getting all the attention they would naturally get if the defender had more time.
With all the ails Kentucky has financially, this should rank near the top of the list of things that need fixed. And the only way to fix it is the have more public defenders.Everyone is guaranteed the right to a speedy trial and to competent counsel. Anything less is unconstitutional and simply shouldn’t be accepted.
