Budget Cuts and the Court System
by Kemp Brinson
The latest edition of the Florida Bar Journal has a disturbing article on the effect of budget cuts on the criminal justice system that is a revealing read for anyone who thinks Florida’s court system can tighten its belt any more. The public defender’s office in Miami has stopped taking new cases. Some shocking stats from the article (paraphrased):
Number of cases to be tried by ONE ATTORNEY in in ONE WEEK: 13
Starting salary for an assistant public defender: $42,000
Average case load per attorney: 387-440 (for comparison, I have 50 at the moment.)
Criminals are walking free and innocent people are ending up in jail because of our legislature’s failure to adequately fund this system.
