Public defenders struggle with furloughs

Bernalillo County Metropolitan Courthouse. Photo by Peter St. Cyr

In November, Gov. Bill Richardson announced that, due to the state’s budget crisis, he would order 20,000 state workers in the executive branch to take five days off work without pay. Among those furloughed are public defenders, who unlike law enforcement, prosecutors and judges, are part of the executive branch. The chief public defender says the governor’s office has given him some flexibility, but the furloughs could end up costing the state even more if the rights of defendants are affected.

This year about 50,000 criminal defendants have sought legal representation from the New Mexico Public Defender’s Office, which oversees 167 full and part-time attorneys, in addition to paralegals, investigators, and support staff. Dangler says he’s already struggling with budget cuts. After the state Supreme Court raised concerns with the governor’s office, Chief Public Defender Hugh Dangler was given the ability to shift some furlough dates for critical personnel. But the already stressed department will be operating on a skeleton crew while police continue to make arrests and prosecutors will continue to work on cases.

“You can’t subject the Constitution to budget cuts–people have the right to counsel,” Dangler told The Independent in an interview. Despite the state’s budgetary woes,  criminal suspects still have the right to talk to attorney and ask for bail without spending longer than normal time in jail waiting for legal representation, Dangler said.

If the furloughs mean that some people don’t get access to an attorney–that could be a problem for the state.

“These are people’s rights, these are people’s lives. They’re entitled to our help, and we’re entitled to give it to them,” he said.

Several concessions have been made to ensure that defendants have access to representation.

New Mexico Chief Justice Edward Chavez sent a memo to courts across the state urging them not set court calendars for furlough dates. Judicial calendars are rigidly scheduled, so the option to allow some public defenders to work on furlough days, attending arraignments and trials, eases some of the concerns raised by judges, court clerks, and prosecutors.

The goal during budget cutbacks is to keep the criminal justice system going forward, Artie Pepin, director for the Administrative Office of the Courts, told The Independent.

“We can’t proceed without assigning them an attorney if the attorneys are all unavailable,” Pepin said. “The court really doesn’t have much of an option to wait to arraign those people until the public defenders are available.”

Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, whose own 2nd Judicial Office has been hit with cuts totaling more than a million dollars, said even with skeleton crews operating in the public defenders’ office, court cases could be delayed or continued to another date, so she and other prosecutors are looking at ways to resolve criminal cases more quickly.

“One of the things I didn’t realize eight or nine years ago when I came into this job is how dependent we are on other systems and agencies in the criminal justice system,” Brandenburg said.  “When any one agency is having issues it really impacts all the agencies. So we will be impacted by whatever happens to the courts and public defenders. We will do the best that we can.”

In addition to full-time employees, the Public Defenders Department contracts with over 130 private lawyers, who serve in areas of the state where the Department does not have staff offices and when there are co-defendants in conflict cases.

Dangler said he’s already trimmed his budget and is now using money saved from unfilled positions to make up for budget cuts.

“We can sustain the current level of cuts,” Dangler said. “But if the Legislature makes more cuts in January all bets are off.”