62 Years After Gideon, It’s Time to Bring Illinois’ Public Defender System Into the 21st Century
Today is the 62nd anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court case that established the right to counsel in the United States and launched the existence of public defense as we know it today. It very fitting that this afternoon, the House Judiciary -Criminal Committee with hold a subject matter hearing on the The Funded Advocacy & Independent Representation (FAIR) Act. This legislation would address Illinois’ public defense crisis by creating a statewide public defender office to support county public defenders and ensure that all Illinoisans have access to high-quality representation. You can tune-in to the hearing here at 2pm: ilga.gov/. Once you get to the site click “Audio/Video” and it’ll be the stream from Room D-1.
Illinois was an early leader in establishing public defender’s offices but our laws around public defense have not significantly changed since 1949! That’s 14 years before Gideon. That’s one of the main reasons that the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice has joined attorneys and organizations across the state to call on our legislature to pass the FAIR Act. It’s time for Illinois to join the 44 other states with a state public defender office to support and supplement county public defenders.
Currently, we are one of only seven states without any statewide oversight or standards for trial-level public defense. According to a 2021 Sixth Amendment Center study commissioned by the Illinois Supreme Court, public defenders were struggling with excessive caseloads that negatively affected their clients. In the study, a public defender in Champaign County reported having 50 pretrial conferences in one day and 100 scheduled for the next day. In DuPage County, a public defender said he was only able to get through 70% of the evidence provided by the prosecution in any given case because of limited capacity. Unsurprisingly, the Sixth Amendment Center found these excessive caseloads created fears of burnout and depression among public defense attorneys. Nearly 60% of Illinois counties have no government office of public defense and instead contract with private attorneys to provide representation, often on a part-time basis.
The Funded Advocacy & Independent Representation (FAIR) Act can bring Illinois public defense into the 21st century.
