Pay per plea: public defenders come at a price.
The Progressive › Vol. 61 Nbr. 1, January 1997
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Summary
Trend toward fees for public-defender representation - Cover Story
Wisconsin is among the states that have implemented fees for public defender services, and poor defendants must pay its fees even if they are acquitted. Miserly standards for indigency are another way that the poor are being denied legal assistance.See the full content of this document
Extract
Pay per plea: public defenders come at a price.
Five women sit around a table in a stark, cement-walled holding room at the Rock County Jail in Janesville, Wisconsin. The women, recently arrested and dressed in jailhouse orange, talk with a paralegal, who is evaluating their eligibility for public defense.
One of the women receives welfare benefits. Two have no means of support. One works part-time and pulls in only $30 a week. Another sells her plasma. All of them qualify for public defense. And all of them will have to pay for it. Paralegal Amy Kelber explains to them that Wisconsin started a new program in A...See the full content of this document
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