State Senator Mike Padden: Washington needs more public defenders and prosecutors as well as police officers

With the passage of Initiative 2113 earlier this year, lawmakers repealed a series of backward, criminal-friendly restrictions on policing that had enabled a multi-year increase in auto thefts in our state.

While this was an important victory, much more needs to be done to restore a sense of public safety in our communities.

Washington continues to rank 51st in the United States in terms of the ratio of police officers to residents – a sad statistic that is finally attracting attention outside the Capitol due to this year’s gubernatorial elections.

And then there is another serious but less publicized flaw in our criminal justice system: the lack of public defenders and prosecutors.

Spokane County, for example, is short nine prosecutors. And last month, the city of SeaTac’s inability to find public defenders helped lead to the dropping of charges against 46 protesters arrested in April for blocking access to Washington’s largest airport.

The reasons for the turnover and the lack of ability to recruit new talent in the public defence and prosecution sector are simple: too many cases and too little compensation.

The public is not safer when crime suspects are released because the local jurisdiction cannot find a public defender for an indigent defendant and dismisses the case to avoid violating the right to a speedy and public trial guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Nor are our communities safer when someone pleads guilty to a lesser charge and receives a lighter sentence because a public defender is too busy to take the case to trial.

Furthermore, in neither situation is there any reason for law enforcement officials or victims to have confidence in our legal system.

To address what it believes are the root causes of this crisis, the Washington State Bar Association has submitted a set of revised standards for the defense of indigent individuals to our state’s Supreme Court.

The changes include new requirements for public defender support staff, phased changes to help lawyers gain trial experience, and workload adjustments to give public defenders more time to prepare.

The Supreme Court will accept public comments on these recommendations until October 31. In addition, two public hearings will be held on the issue, with the first hearing taking place on September 25.

The bar’s proposals are ambitious. But as county and city attorneys recently told the Senate Legal and Judiciary Committee, implementing the new standards would require significantly more money.

A bill introduced this year by Republican Sen. Nikki Torres of Pasco specifically sought to increase state funding for public defense. Unfortunately, SB 5773 went nowhere.

Of the six bills Torres proposed to improve our state’s public defense infrastructure, only her Senate Bill 5780 became law. It will encourage participation in the public defense and prosecutorial professions, especially in underserved and rural areas.

My greatest concern is that unless the pressure on local public defenders is eased, there will be more dismissals like the one in SeaTac.

A Superior Court judge I greatly respect raised a more specific concern: If the Supreme Court adopts the state bar’s recommendations, but counties cannot increase or adjust their budgets to support the new standards, crimes like auto theft and burglary will be given a lower priority and likely not prosecuted.

Knowing what it takes to enable officers to resume pursuing and arresting suspected car thieves, this would be unthinkable.

While the Supreme Court and the Bar deserve credit for their work in addressing this crisis, the best solutions often come when all parties come together. On this issue, not only legislators, local governments, and the legal community should be on the list, but also our state’s law schools. Law enforcement supports my position on this issue.

Many young lawyers are burdened with enormous student debt. Some form of debt relief could help offset the lower compensation of public sector lawyers.

Law schools and bar associations could also work together to convey a message I heard as a law student: The best way to become a top-notch (and highly paid) trial lawyer is to gain courtroom experience, and the easiest way to do that is to work as a prosecutor or public defender.

The work of prosecutors and public defenders is critical to the fair administration of justice. There was a time when these positions were considered honorable and rewarding. We should strive to do so again.

Senator Mike Padden, a Republican from Spokane Valley, served for 28 years as a representative of Washington’s 4th Legislative District. He is the Republican leader on the Senate Judiciary and Law Committee and served for 12 years as a Spokane County District Court judge.