Oregon Public Defense Commission details multi-pronged efforts to stem public defender crisis

In the last few years, the state has come under intense criticism from civil rights advocates for its failure to provide constitutionally mandated defense attorneys to people charged with crimes if they cannot afford them. A 2022 report by the American Bar Association found the state had barely a third of the lawyers it needed to represent defendants who qualified for a public defender. 

Since then, lawakers and state officials have significantly increased capacity and made structural changes aimed at remedying the crisis, including providing additional funding — but challenges remain. In May the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an earlier ruling in the Betschart case that mandates that defendants may not be held in custody for more than seven days without a lawyer.  

The Oregon Public Defense Commission, formerly known as the Oregon Office of Public Defense Services, has hired about a dozen trial-level public defenders in three offices around the state, the first such attorneys who work directly for the state as employees, not contractors. On Wednesday, Executive Director Jessica Kampfe presented a plan to the Commission that would increase that number to 40 in the next year and also extend a temporary program that raised the hourly rates of the defense attorneys the state contracts with to represent defendants. Kampe joins us to explain the changes that have already been made in the public defense system and the changes she expects over the next 10 years.