Indefensible?

An editorial from Lake County, California -

Defending the Defenders

...because, well, somebody needs to:

...[I}t may be that public defenders in Lake County are more to be pitied than censored.

Case overloads, no facilities for meeting with clients, a packed court schedule and a controversial administration have combined to make the work of a public defender in this county difficult at best.

Such conditions create the question: Are the attorneys who work in public defense failing in the system, or is the system failing the public defenders?

The Lake County system, by the way, is put out to bid to private contractors.