MO: p.d.'s underfunded

Public defense system in dire state, report says:

Statewide, the Missouri public defender system is in crisis from a lack of funding, according to a report by the Spangenberg Group...

Salaries are “pathetic,” with public defender trial attorneys earning from $33,792 to $52,452. By contrast, state prosecutors typically earn from $40,000 to more than $100,000...

The cumulative turnover rate for public defenders over the past five years was nearly 100 percent and “exceeds that of any other public defender system in our experience,” the study’s authors said.

“If public defender salaries aren’t increased and workloads decreased, it is only a matter of time before the criminal justice system crashes,” Jackson County Public Defender Joel Elmer said. “It’s a matter of when, not if.”

There is something wrong, he said, when some of the best and most experienced defense lawyers “barely make half of what brand-new lawyers make at the big firms.”