Professor John Pfaff was quoted in a Vox article about a bill introduced by U.S. Senator Kamala Harris that would limit public defenders’ workload and increase their pay to be comparable with that of prosecutors.
Earlier this month, Harris introduced a bill aimed at limiting public defenders’ workload and increasing their pay to be comparable with that of prosecutors. This week, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) is offering a companion bill in the House.
Harris’s proposal, dubbed the Equal Defense Act, is significant: The conversation about criminal justice reform has long omitted public defenders from the discussion, and this bill seeks to change that. Additionally, it’s politically savvy: Harris has been criticized for her past record as a prosecutor, and this bill demonstrates an effort to aid those who are often on the other side of the courtroom.
Thus far, the legislation has been widely lauded among members of the public defender community, garnering the backing of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the ACLU. At its core, the bill aims to make sure public defenders are fairly compensated and treated by the states and counties that employ them, thereby ensuring that those who rely on them are more fairly represented in their cases.
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Fordham law professor John Pfaff also noted the bill’s symbolic importance.“It’s going to put this issue of this disparity much more in the national radar,” he says. “As a proportion of overall spending, it’s not a huge amount, but it is one of the first major federal efforts to turn our attention to public defenders.”
