ARKANSAS, USA — In 2022, Arkansas was granted $4.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, to hire up to 45 public defenders to tackle the growing backlog of cases since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The idea was to hire attorneys part time to relieve public defenders of an already full caseload.
With that money, 37 part time attorneys were brought in to take on 5,000 cases that accumulated between March 2020 and June 2021. In order to make the money last, their salaries were capped at $60,000.
But that funding is quickly running out and will be gone by the end of the month.
At an Arkansas Legislative Council subcommittee meeting on Monday, Executive Director of the Public Defenders Commission Greg Parrish asked for another $1.25 million to finish those cases.
"We don't have COVID money anymore, it's basically gone. So it's time we get these people through the system. It's not fair to them. It's not fair to the county jail they're sitting in and it's not fair to the people that are waiting for their cases to be heard," Representative Frances Cavenaugh said.
The council has agreed to hold off on making a decision till Friday, Aug. 23, while Parrish gathers requested information including exactly how many cases were handled using the ARPA funds.
Sarah Moore with the Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition says she encourages the state to allocate more money because public defense in the state is underfunded.
"When we don't appropriately invest in our public defense, we have to really wonder if we are violating the constitutionality of the rights that individuals have to truly have equal protection and equity to justice in our communities," Moore said.
Parrish says public defenders are doing everything they can. But when each public defender has hundreds of cases on their desk, it's a slow process.
"We've had people sitting in jail for 18 months the week four trial, their case gets dismissed, and that's something that is beyond our control," Parrish explained.
"These are our individuals who do not have incomes that allow them to go spend $3,000, $5,000 dollars," Moore added. "They don't have $100 in their pocket for an unexpected expense. They oftentimes do end up staying in jail for extended periods of times because they can't buy their liberty."
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