70 YEAR OLD LAWYER SENTENCE UP FROM 28 TO 120 MONTHS

New York activists lawyer Lynn Stewart was resentenced in New York this week.  The original 28 month term, which she defiantly declared she could do "standing on my head" was vacated by the Court of Appeals and remanded.  Stewart was convicted of passing messages from a terrorism defendant to his organization, and on re-sentencing the Trial Court moved it to 10 years.  A very harsh penalty, unreasonable in many respects: does it say anything about the limited role of counsel and the dangers we face from the courts in going beyond it to another kind of relationship?  7/16/10

THE HOLISTIC CLIENT NEWS

4/22/09  DISTRICT DEFENDER OFFICE (DDO) HAS TO MANAGE COMMUNITY DEFENDER BETAS

April 17 and 18th, the Louisiana Public Defenders considered issues implicit in the creation of Community Defender Elements in a District Defender Office.  Discussion focused on a simple issues list reviewed by a committee, including several lawyers over a three week period.  The issues list amounts to management points for inclusion in a formal protocol to hopefully make the testing of Community Defender elements more effective.    Less important, but helpful in illustrating how the final product might look,  the DDs talked about a sample agreement in which the DDO and a Grantee set up elements of the Community Defender in a particular district.   In the current environment of huge change, its going to take some hard work to get the data needed for implementing these programs widely across the state.

2/26/2009  BRENNAN REPORT COD WANTS COMMUNITY D IN OPD

Katrina seemed to many an opportunity for complete retooling of New Orleans.  The PDs were a big ticket item. One of the concepts pitched by the Bronx Defenders and Community Oriented Defenders (COD) was to make the Orleans Public Defender a full social services agency.  This 2006 "Report" suggested that the OPD could handle client life from charging to release with a full compliment of social services.

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The latest trend in Indigent Defense: converting the lawyer function of defending under the Constitution to a conduit for the healing arts and transformation of the client into a productive citizen.  A combination of rehabilitation and correction under the name of the Public Defender.  We'll take some bandwidth here to look at trends and articles,  and hopefully provoke discussion of just what this means, how it might work,  and when it can become a priority.  As usual with these kinds of things,  there are lots of pronouncements and declarative sentences out there,  but its not clear how much actual data we have to build on.

Rhode Island's model involves Social Workers to assist counsel and had four in its PD Office.  They gather information to assist in sentencing/ placement litigation.  "Most commonly, social workers assist in obtaining non-jail residential placements and out-patient programs in the areas of substance and alcohol abuse, and in mental health services."

An interesting view is reflected on the NACDL Web,  which essentially attaches Social Work to the Appellate Counsel by literally redefining the role of counsel as inclusive of planning for post conviction release, and hooking up the client for re-entry into society.  It will be interesting to see the projected costs of that, which will tell us when we might be able to afford it,  or whether that will be 100 years from now.   The challenge for Louisiana Criminal Justice policymakers is to fit Holistic Client theories into a practical application where the system remains unfunded for the essential and simple work of representing a client in court.  The literature is already full of propaganda suggesting that there will be "resisters" and dismissing all who dissent or question the new paradigm out of hand as if these theories are beyond any question the essence of the future.

In MARYLAND, the PD was using a Social Worker after sentencing, as early as 2006,  to offer support in rebuilding the client's life.   Things started with the Bronx Defenders' program,  and Baltimore created its own pilot, highlighted in a 2007 news article.    The Bronx Defenders', one special public defender office in one New York neighborhood,  is the ideal model of the Holistic Office, and as noted on its web:

  "Recognizing that people come into the justice system with a host of social, psychological, and economic         problems,  holistic representation addresses all of the interrelated issues that surround a client’s life."

As usual,  lots of people are already jumping to the conclusion that this can be a world wide model for every State, and every Public Defender Office, and we are starting see the presumptuous demand that there be no question about when, how or why this must be done.   Keeping hope alive,  Louisiana Defenders want to see these changes take place as a compliment to the Right to Counsel,  with adequate funding, planning and implementation,  and in the cooperative spirit that is the only way things can get done.   We have lots of problems, but that doesn't mean we can't provide lots of solutions.