Louisiana's public defense system could collapse without renewed cash flow

[noretreatnosurrender]

Source: The Guardian

The state of Louisiana is the world capital of incarceration. It locks up more of its citizens than anywhere else on the globe – some 1,341 out of every 100,000 people.

That’s twice the US national average (716), nearly three times the per capita rate in Russia (475) and nine times that of the UK (148). It’s even substantially higher than North Korea’s (thought to be around 800).

Now the Pelican state is in the throes of a crisis that is certain to propel its already astronomical incarceration rate to new heights. Its public defender service, a network of state-funded lawyers that provides legal representation to poor Louisianans, is in meltdown, with most of its district offices set to cancel all new cases or close down entirely by next summer.

An assessment by the Louisiana public defender board obtained by the Guardian warns that by July of 2017, as many as 33 of the state’s 42 districts are likely to be so short of cash they will be forced to stop representing clients. Eleven of those districts may be forced to shut down by this October.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/04/louisiana-public-defense-system-cash-flow-collapse

---

We need to do some crowd funding to help the Louisiana Public Defenders Service. Does anyone know how to set it up? This is a tragedy.

[katsy]

1. You can't bail out stupid voters for voting

for incompetent, corrupt gop con men who fuck up their communities. The DOJ will deal with these incompetents no doubt.

Every one is entitled to adequate legal representation and that's not going away, not even in LA. My guess is many cases will be tossed?

[elleng]

3. They're not 'stupid,'

they're ignorant, and such ignorance is promoted by repugs and their corporate msm leaders, a truly circular firing squad of we the people.

[katsy]

4. I stand corrected.

[billhicks76]

16. No Public Defender=No Prosecution

Simple as that.

[exboyfil]

26. No money for bail

Still in jail. No money for a lawyer to file speedy trial motions.

[billhicks76]

30. This Country Is A Mess

Only Bernie can make a difference. Hillary and Trump will make it worse.

[monicaangela]

2. You're kidding right?

Misconduct[edit]

Antoinette Frank[edit]

On 4 March 1995, Officer Antoinette Frank robbed a local restaurant, killed two of the owner's children, as well as her own partner who was working security at the business. She was sentenced to death.[14]

Hurricane Katrina[edit]

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, ninety-one officers resigned or retired and another two hundred and twenty-eight were investigated for abandoning their posts. [15]

Danziger Bridge shootings[edit]

A deadly police shooting occurred on the Danziger Bridge in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. On Sunday, September 4, six days after the hurricane, nineteen-year-old James Brissette and forty-year-old Ronald Madison, both African American, were killed in the gunfire, and four other civilians were wounded. All victims were unarmed. Madison, a mentally disabled man, was shot in the back. New Orleans police coordinated in fabricating a cover-up story for their crime, falsely reporting that seven police officers responded to a police dispatch reporting an officer down, and that at least four people were firing weapons at the officers upon their arrival. The Danziger Bridge Shootings led to several NOPD officers being charged with various crimes including obstruction of justice. On August 5, 2011, five officers were found guilty of all charges. Several others plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for testimony against the other officers. On September 17, 2013, the five officers who went to trial and were found guilty of various civil rights violations, were granted a new trial. In his 129-page order vacating the convictions and ordering a new trial, Federal Judge Kurt Engelhardt, cited grotesque prosecutorial misconduct as the reason for granting the motion for a new trial.[citation needed]

Jeff Winn[edit]

In late May, 2011, Captain Jeff Winn was fired and a number of other officers reassigned for concealing details concerning the killing of Henry Glover in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.[16]

Joshua Colclough[edit]

In August 2012, Officer Joshua Colclough plead guilty to manslaughter in his killing of an unarmed man during a drug raid. He was sentenced to four years in jail.[17]

Maurice Palmer[edit]

In April 2013, former Officer Maurice Palmer was sentenced to five years' probation for failing to file federal income tax forms.[18]

Quincy Jones and Rafael Dobard[edit]

In February 2014, Officers Quincy Jones and Rafael Dobard plead guilty to charges relating to faking time sheets and embezzling money from the department.[19]

Desmond Pratt[edit]

In March 2014, Detective Desmond Pratt plead guilty to sexual assault of three underaged girls. He was sentenced to three years in state custody.[
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_Police_Department

Why should anybody want to help this continue...let the system break down, maybe when they resurrect it, they will fix the problems.

[noretreatnosurrender]

5. Wow

I really didn't expect to be met with such heartless comments about the poor citizens who are being locked up and then having their public defenders service collapse which means they will stay locked up. There will be no one to advocate for them. That doesn't bother you? Wow.

Now the Pelican state is in the throes of a crisis that is certain to propel its already astronomical incarceration rate to new heights. Its public defender service, a network of state-funded lawyers that provides legal representation to poor Louisianans, is in meltdown, with most of its district offices set to cancel all new cases or close down entirely by next summer.

[katsy]

7. Not heartless. But bake sales aren't the proper

course of action either. And yes, the ignorant public needs to get chastised and ridiculed.

Read: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/01/28/why-getting-sued-could-be-the-best-thing-to-happen-to-new-orleans-public-defenders#.vWYJUO1Hi

"As for Bunton, he is struggling with his decision not to represent some of New Orleans’ poorest defendants — but insists that he “completely rejects the notion that the poor only deserve what we can give them.”“What I don't understand,” he adds, “is why we have to be so creative to compel the government to protect a Constitutional right.”


Indeed that is the question that needs to be addressed and resolved. Crowdfunding isn't a fix.

[noretreatnosurrender]

8. Didn't say anything about bake sales

Crowd funding would embarrass the hell out of them. Maybe it would be enough to get our government to start protecting Constitutional rights, eh?

[katsy]

10. IMO the reprieve would suit the ptb just fine.

Kicking the problem down the road will only snowball the problem. Crowdfunding,,, a modern day bake sale IMO, are no way to address violations of your 6th amendment constitutional rights.

The ACLU and justice dept should address this problem. The legislature needs to be forced to fund the constitutional right to counsel. It's not just a LA problem. If you have republicans in power shit just falls apart. They are decimating communities and they need to be stopped.

[starroute]

6. How can they have money for prisons but not for public defenders?

If they're that broke, why isn't the budget for keeping people locked up running out as well? Or is prison an entitlement program down there that has to take in everyone no matter what?

[OldRedneck]

9. How did this happen?

How did this happen?

Simple: Governor Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (Republican).

And the public defender system is just the beginning of the collapse of the entire state.

[OldRedneck]

11. Read the details here

Republicans had total control of Louisiana and now it's about to collapse.


http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/03/04/republicans-had-total-control-of-this-state-and-its-about-to-collapse/

[Sam_Fields]

12. Most Public Defenders have become Plea Deal Agents

They only spend 7 minutes on a misdemeanor case or 14 minutes on a felony case before telling their client their best option is a plea deal. But if you have money you can claim influenza and get a fair trial.

[fullautohotdog]

13. Louisiana doesn't need a Kickstarter...

Tragedies don't get kickstarters.

They need a class-action lawsuit by thousands of indigent defenders to go 7-1 at SCOTUS legally bitch-slapping them for billions.

Give me a Kickstarter page to back that lawsuit, not to keep the lights on. Let Jindal's system burn to the ground. Otherwise it's just throwing good money after bad.

So glad the push is on in NY for the state to take over the system, the standards and the funding.

[Chicago1980]

14. Rachel Maddow was talking about the mismanagement of the state under

Piyush Jindal this past Thursday 03/03/16.

The state university system is in shambles.

[billhicks76]

15. How About Instead Release ALL Drug Offenders And Stop Prosecuting

And how about a ton of class action lawsuits against the criminal government there.

[Old Vet]

17. If I remember correctly..............

The state is so broke LSU football is at stake, Talking about shutting down the football program.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

20. LSU Football 4th Highest Moneymaker in College Football

That's not going to happen.

It's just a threat to the low information voters who love football.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2601700-texas-notre-dame-tennessee-top-forbes-most-valuable-college-football-teams

[AxionExcel]

18. Repube & Bagger's big secret strategy is "Starving the Beast"

[SujiwanKenobee]

19. oil?

Does the extreme fund shortfall also have to do with price of oil? I don't know much about Louisiana, but wondered if they rely on Gulf oil industries and whether falling prices have drained what small coffers they had left.

[hatrack]

21. The state's portion of GOM oil output is extremely limited

Can't remember if it's five miles or two miles or twelve, but the way the boundaries are drawn, only extremely near-shore oil output is taxed for the benefit of the state.

Everything else - and all the big projects are way offshore - produces no revenue for Louisiana.

[happyslug]

23. The state limit is 3.5 miles

Under English Common Law, the limit of control off shore was as far as a black powdered cannon could fire, about 3.5 miles. Thus every state except Florida and Texas have control off their shore up to 3.5 miles.

Spain claimed a 10.5 mile distance, that claim was recognized by Congress when the U.S. purchased Florida in 1819 and then annexed Texas in 1845, but NOT when the U.S. took over California in 1848. Till the 1970s even the federal government used the 3.5 mile limit. In the 1970s the U.S. Limit was extended to 200 miles or half way to the border of another country (in the case of the gulf coast that means Cuba).

Thus the federal area of control is the sea floor beyond 3.5 miles of the coastline except off the coasts of Florida and Texas where the state limit is 10.5 miles.

All of the oil fields within state control were drilled by the 1970s thus all the new wells are in Federal wells. Louisiana is getting none of that revenue except what it collects as taxes on the bases in Louisiana snd the oil field workers who reside in Louisiana.

[NCjack]

22. I think that "crowd funding" will not be needed. Gov. Edwards (D) knew the conditions

of the State's finances when he campaigned for the office, and he planned to jump on the problem quickly. Louisiana's Legislature is now in extraordinary (special) session for the purpose of raising taxes, giving both the governor and legislature the ability to lay the responsibility at the feet of ex-Gov. Jindal. Since Jindal was the leader for Tea-Pary budgeting, this is an honest act. Anyway, I don't think that Louisiana needs gifts. If you want to do something, take some tourist dollars to them. All of the State has interesting places and events.

[homegirl]

24. SCOTUS finally took action on Lousiana attacks on women

• 2 minutes ago

That figures. These oh so educated males love the idea of spreading their seed all over planet earth but comes time to man up and pay for the next 20 years for the kids they spawn, they'd rather leave that to the women they abandon with gusto. That way, they can bitch about single moms, single moms on welfare, make a bundle from drug testing single moms on welfare all what these reckless, irresponsible bird brains have lightening fast zippers Energizer Bunny would be jealous of.

Just let any woman make a decision with her own mind and body and these Turds of Testosterone are right on her, trying to force her to give birth. These are not anti-abortionists...not even right to lifers...they are Pro-birthers who need more footsoldiers in the unnecessary wars they kill the already born in. Their version of "birth control"...endless supplies of warriors and no cost when they are maimed or dead.

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CrankyToo • 27 minutes ago

Guess who the lone dissenting justice was... Turd-Blossom Thomas, of course.

[mountain grammy]

25. one correction to an excellent rant: Pro-forced birthers.

Turds of Testosterone.... perfect!

[Nictuku]

27. I think this would be a violation of the 6th Amendment of the Constitution

.... What would happen if a state does not uphold its constitutional duty?

"It is not to be thought of in a civilized community for a moment that any citizen put in jeopardy of life or liberty should be debarred of counsel because he is too poor to employ such aid," the Indiana court wrote. "No court could be expected to respect itself to sit and hear such a trial. The defense of the poor in such cases is a duty which will at once be conceded as essential to the accused, to the court and to the public."

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."

http://www.nlada.org/About/About_HistoryDefender

[silvershadow]

28. Something the Private Prison Industrial Complex is banking on...literally. nt

[tabasco]

29. Louisiana is similar to a third world country.

One in five Louisianans live in poverty.

Imagine what a shit hole this place would be without the rest of the USA supporting it. Louisiana is one of the largest tax leech states in the nation.

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/275985/map-shows-conservative-states-leech-off-the-government-more-than-liberal-states/