Transforming the Public Defender's Office

Public Defense PaPublicpers from the Executive Defense Session on Public Defense Cultural ublic defenders everywhere are culture in order to create a desire to PP beginning to reassess the most reevaluate these values and provide a Revolution: fundamental questions of what it means set of concrete suggestions by which to provide effective representation for public defender managers can move an Transforming clients. Frustrated by the limitations office from the traditional model to a traditionally imposed by government more holistic one. the Public funders who seek to satisfy minimal constitutional requirements, public Values of the Public Defender’s defenders are asking themselves if there Defender is more they can do for the clients and Office communities they represent. By Traditional Defender changing the way public defenders see The traditional defender office is lawyer their clients, their communities, and By Robin Steinberg and driven and case oriented. The public themselves, we can fundamentally alter 1 defense culture centers on a small cadre David Feige the relationship among the three for the of trial lawyers esteemed for their trial benefit of all. skills. The obsessive focus on the trial Even talking about changing what public as the crowning achievement of the defenders do and how they define their public defender leads inescapably to the roles is liable to terrify most managers privileging of the canny trial attorney of public defender offices. Our culture is and the undervaluing of the caring and so ingrained and traditional that calls for effective advocate focused on both the cultural change are usually met with client’s legal and extra-legal needs. statements like, “My lawyers won’t do Traditional defenders address that;” “My funders won’t let me do that;” themselves primarily to the client’s “My community isn’t interested in that;” immediate legal needs, believing that or “It sounds great in practice, but it’ll removing or reducing the imminent never work for me.” threat of incarceration is their function. Social work intervention, where it This bulletin is designed to do two exists, is limited to helping lawyers things: provoke a discussion about the achieve case dispositions for clients. most basic values of the public defender Once a case is over, so is the relationship This is one in a series of papers developed with some of the leading figures in public defense during their periodic meetings at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. These 30 members of the Executive Session on Public Defense (ESPD) included state public defender leaders, assigned counsel managers, a prosecutor, a legislator, a social worker, a journalist, and criminal justice experts. In their discussions and resulting papers, they tried to rethink the field of public defense—challenging conventional wisdom and exploring new ways to serve clients and society. ESPD was a partnership effort of Harvard University’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Manage- ment, the Harvard Law School, the Vera Institute of Justice, The Spangenberg Group, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. August 2002 | Bulletin #3 with the client—at least until the next appropriate. By integrating lawyers, Transforming Traditions arrest. social workers, and investigators into a working unit, a holistic model is able to The culture of an office is often so In the traditional model, the better assess and serve client needs. ingrained in the way things are done communities that the clients come from that it becomes invisible. Tradition, fear are generally ignored. Clients are seen Finally, by being community based, the of the unknown, and inertia conspire to most often in the courthouse rather than holistic model is seen as part of the make cultural change seem impossible. the office. Family meetings are rare, and larger community. These offices become It is not. Changing the culture of a long-term involvement with schools or a resource for the community and forge public defender office requires clear community organizations is unheard of. powerful relationships with community vision, shared investment, and sustained Any sense of community that exists is groups and organizations. Whether momentum. What motivates many public within the courthouse. responding to the criminal justice defenders—the reason many of them concerns of the community, doing a went into the work in the first place—is Client-Centered Defender workshop at a local high school, or the engine that can drive officewide working with a treatment center to cultural change. By contrast, the more holistic model of ensure that clients have access to representation is client focused, limited bed space for treatment, holistic Many public defenders come to the work interdisciplinary, and community based. offices work collaboratively with the with the desire to help people, create a Lawyers in these offices see a client’s community to enhance services for better criminal justice system, and make legal needs as a starting point. So, if a clients and add to the vibrancy of the a difference. In almost every office there client faces robbery charges, she may community. is a “true believer” and there are lawyers also be in an abusive relationship and who want to do more—to reach farther have a drug problem. Instead of focusing Trial skills and aggressive courtroom into clients’ lives and communities and on just the robbery charge (or case) as a advocacy remain a mainstay of a client- make a difference in the lives they are traditional defender might, an advocate centered defender organization. The goal sworn to defend. And it is these lawyers, in a more holistic environment may is not to diminish zealous legal practice, backed by thoughtful and directed simultaneously address the abusive but to augment it. Because much of the management, that can move a public relationship and substance abuse issues client-centered work occurs outside the defender office forward and change its in addition to the legal ones, whether or hallways and stairwells of the culture from the traditional model to a not they initially appear to be related. courthouse and inside the communities more client-centered one. The change is and families of the client, it does not not easy, and it is certainly not quick. Because of the focus on the whole client, interfere with courtroom advocacy. So, But with persistence and patience, it can social workers and investigators are part by bringing to bear all the weapons in happen. and parcel of what the lawyer does. the arsenal of criminal defense work and Holistic offices recognize that social blending them with the humanizing and What follows is a series of questions and workers and investigators often have the compassionate elements of the client- suggestions for transforming the culture best perspective on the client— centered approach, powerful advocates of a traditional public defender office investigators because they spend time in find themselves even better equipped to into a more holistic, client-centered the communities that the clients come simultaneously engender compassion organization. These suggestions also from and social workers because they from judges and acquittals from juries. serve as a guide for some of the issues are trained to assess client needs and and problems that are likely to be provide social services when encountered on the long road to cultural change. The Executive Session on Public Defense (ESPD) was designed to How can I change my office encourage a new form of dialogue between high-level practitioners culture? and scholars, with a view to redefining and proposing solutions for substantive policy issues. Practitioners rather than academicians Vision. Vision is an absolute were given majority representation in the group. Meetings were prerequisite to any change in culture. conducted as loosely structured seminars or policy debates. The chief defender and top management must all share a unified vision of what Between 1999 and 2001, ESPD met 5 times. During the 3-day meetings, the 30 members discussed the facts and values that the office should be. All managers have guided, and those that should guide, public defense. should be dedicated to bringing the office toward the shared goals, and each 2|Cultural Revolution: Transforming the Public Defender’s Office must be able to clearly articulate the and collaboration. Lawyers understand coherent, powerful voices for clients that cultural vision of the office. how investigators make their work on expand our understanding of client cases possible. Without the investigators, needs and help us address them It is therefore of paramount importance lawyers would not have a good sense of effectively. to commit time and resources to create a case, but lawyers often do not this vision at the top. A management understand how social workers can Create a physical environment that retreat designed to address the support their legal work and the clients. supports your holistic vision. How an fundamental questions of what the office Only by working directly with social office creates and uses space speaks should be, what it should do for clients, workers, as members of a work group or volumes. The space reflects the vision, and what it should become is a good team, can lawyers begin to really assumptions, and commitments of the start. Ideally, managers can agree that a understand the value of social workers. public defender office. In structuring the public defender office is a place that office, defender managers must think exists for clients, and that its goal is Whether assessing a client’s mental about the internal use of space by both both to address its clients’ immediate health status, diagnosing a drug staff and the client/community.

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