Along with the growing affordability crisis there has been a chronic shortage of public defenders. With tightened finances this means more people can't afford attorneys. The public defender system seems broken.
When someone is charged with a serious crime, the case may be dismissed because of the shortage and someone that is a threat to society is released. There may not be a defender available, and the accused sits in there for a prolonged period of time, thereby causing unnecessary personal and financial problems, maybe adding to recidivism rates. People may be pushed into plea deals even if they're innocent.
Even when people have a public defender, they're not getting equal representation. Case loads for defenders range from excessive to extremely excessive, contributing to burnout and turnover. More competitive attorneys are dissuaded by this and relatively low pay.
These issues may cause legal dynamics to work against the accused. Witness testimonies can be inaccurate or fabricated. Weak forensic evidence may go unchallenged, and may be weaker if the investigators know case details. Prosecutors may see the lack of adequate representation as a weakness.
The whole public defender model should be restructured. Pre-law majors could be required take a couple of undergrad courses on criminal law, and these could be a prerequisite to Law School. Law schools could require all students to take a common core (13-15 credits) in criminal law.
Courts could randomly appoint private attorneys to cover cases where financing is clearly an issue. This should be a condition of practicing law. They could be paid what public defenders would get, which is already an underfunding issue. So, for maybe every 7 cases, for instance, that a family attorney handles for an implicitly inflated rate, they would be required to cover one of these.
Attorneys would be motivated to give defendants fair representation in order to uphold their and/or their firms' reputations. For more serious cases, a random criminal law attorney could be appointed. This would be a more fair and efficient way, as well as function as a contributor to upward mobility.
