A new report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics gives an overview of local public defender officers and its findings show that many state offices — including Maryland and Virginia — are struggling with high caseloads and overburdened staff. Some key local findings:
- In Virginia’s public defender program, the criminal caseload jumped 110 percent from 1999 to 2007, but operating expenditures rose only 67 percent and the number of attorneys increased just 14 percent.
- Government guidelines say public defenders should have no more than 75 felony and 200 misdemeanor cases per year. But Maryland attorneys received an average of 81 felony and 246 misdemeanor cases in 2007, and Virginia defenders received 119 felony and 155 misdemeanor cases.
- Virginia had the worst attrition rate among the 22 state-run programs at 24 percent. Public defenders serve an average of just three years in the office. In contrast, Maryland’s 4 percent attrition rate was one of the best, and public defenders serve an average of 10 years.
The report didn’t provide specific data for county-run public defender offices, or the District of Columbia’s.
