...Then don't fix it. The State, apparently, is going broke. Well, maybe not broke, but economic hard times generally are causing funding cutbacks that are redolent of teacher layoffs. Our Public Defender's Office has been running efficiently for years, with a combination of County and State funding, through a private corporation. It ain't broke, but the State General Assembly decided to fix it. Last year the Legislature voted to transfer control of public defender offices from private County-responsive systems to a State-controlled Circuit system. Our first 14th Circuit Public Defender was just elected. Just like that, I now have two bosses instead of one. Control of the office is not in the Boro anymore; control is nominally from Beaufort, but with a lot of oversight from the State Capitol in Columbia. Although I'd've rather seen my boss, Harris, appointed to the position, the guy that won, Gene, is also a pretty good guy. It is my understanding that he wants to leave us alone to do things the way we have done them. He says he may even try to get us more money. That'd be great. Shoot, take another 1% from the schools if you need to...
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
If It Ain't Broke...
...Then don't fix it. The State, apparently, is going broke. Well, maybe not broke, but economic hard times generally are causing funding cutbacks that are redolent of teacher layoffs. Our Public Defender's Office has been running efficiently for years, with a combination of County and State funding, through a private corporation. It ain't broke, but the State General Assembly decided to fix it. Last year the Legislature voted to transfer control of public defender offices from private County-responsive systems to a State-controlled Circuit system. Our first 14th Circuit Public Defender was just elected. Just like that, I now have two bosses instead of one. Control of the office is not in the Boro anymore; control is nominally from Beaufort, but with a lot of oversight from the State Capitol in Columbia. Although I'd've rather seen my boss, Harris, appointed to the position, the guy that won, Gene, is also a pretty good guy. It is my understanding that he wants to leave us alone to do things the way we have done them. He says he may even try to get us more money. That'd be great. Shoot, take another 1% from the schools if you need to...
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3 comments:
I think the schools should have to pay the Public Defender for every young person who gets in trouble with the law until they're 20 ... if the schools were doing their jobs, these kids wouldn't be in trouble with the law, right?
That sounds reasonable when compared to IL (big mess). But seriously, why the across the board cuts? Can't the legislature figure out which programs are more important/impotent?
And what was the reasoning behind changing the funding for your office if things were going so well?
Funny stuff, Chase. Oh, and we get DJJ (juvenile justice) cases, too. I would've thought the best plan was to punish the parents, who are most responsible for the kids' bad behavior. Would've, 'cept with four kids, I got too much exposure.
Good questions, John. S.C. Governor Mark Sanford actually asked the same question as to the budget, and recommended a targeted approach. Guess it's too much for the General Assembly to think about.
As to the reordering of the Public Defender system, the reason offered when the bill was before the legislature was equity between the counties and equity with the prosecutor's offices. It was true that some counties had badly funded and badly run offices, but really there were only a couple of counties that had real problems. Our circuit, the 14th Circuit, has two of the poorest counties in the State (Jasper and Allendale), but those offices were run very well. I suspect the real reason was more supervision and control out of Columbia. That's just speculation, but I can tell you that until the Chief Justice of the SC Supreme Court started pushing for a new system, there was no outcry for change. Anyway, it's a reality now, so we just got to make the best of it.
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