Arkansas panel approves $1.25 million for public defenders to prevent layoffs and clear case backlog • Arkansas Advocate

Arkansas lawmakers on Friday sent $1.25 million to the state Public Defender Commission to help handle a backlog of more than 5,000 cases caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Commission should have fired lawyers immediately without the money, CEO Gregg Parrish told a panel of the Arkansas Legislative Council on Monday.

The full council gave the funding the green light on the condition that Parrish report monthly to the committee on how many employees the commission has, how much their pay costs and how much progress public defenders have made on pending cases. ALC co-chair Jeff Wardlaw (R-Hermitage) expressed frustration with the funding request on Monday and proposed the monthly reports on Friday.

Without state financial aid, public defenders in Arkansas face dismissal, warns commission director

On Monday, the Subcommittee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review declined to act on the request after members expressed concern that the commission may not have done enough with the $4.5 million in federal funds. it received two years ago to clear the backlog of cases.

Thousands of cases piled up between March 2020 and June 2021 because there were no in-person court hearings, Parrish told the American Rescue Plan Act Steering Committee in August 2022. The committee has since been dissolvedand the money approved on Friday comes from the State Central Services Fund.

The $4.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act would fund up to 45 part-time public defender positions. The commission has limited the number of new hires to 37 to avoid running out of money sooner, Parrish said. There are currently 32 public defenders on the commission, one of whom is about to resign.

Parrish also said he would not replace any attorney who resigns.

“If we are granted these funds, [employees] If I lose, the money will be used to extend the working hours of those who remain on the payroll, at least as much as possible,” he said.

A Judgment of the Federal Court The order issued Wednesday will increase the workload of public defenders, Parrish added.

In 2022, two inmates at the Benton County Jail sued Parrish and Benton County District Judge AJ Anglin. claiming they were rejected their constitutional right to an attorney at bail hearings. U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered that public defenders must represent defendants in Anglin's court who cannot afford their own attorney.

Not only do public defenders have to fit Anglin's bail hearings into their busy schedules, Parrish said, but judges in other parts of the state now expect public defenders to appear at their bail hearings. Applying Brooks' order narrowly to a single judge's court could lead to another lawsuit, he said.

“You get into a dilemma when nobody can be there,” he said. “… I know we can't cover all of that. It's basically impossible.”

The Legislative Council approved the $1.25 million unanimously.