County wins $4M grant to start public defender office
By CHRIS MORAN HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Aug. 25, 2010, 7:11PM
A state panel has awarded Harris County a $4.1 million grant to launch a public defender office, which is expected to start taking cases early next year.
The county plans to roll out the office in phases over the next two years to handle appeals, juvenile cases, adult felony trials and mental health cases. The new office will be a pilot project. It will not supplant the existing system in which judges appoint defense lawyers for the indigent. The county will use a hybrid of both approaches.
"This is a major milestone in the history of the criminal justice system in Harris County," Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia said. A public defender office offers a greater chance at justice for criminal defendants, she said, as well as taxpayer savings in avoided jail costs. Defendants are likely to spend less time in jail awaiting trial and more likely to receive alternatives to jail sentences — such as drug treatment - with the help of specialized defense attorneys, Garcia said. That could reduce a jail population so large that the county houses 1,500 inmates in other counties and in Louisiana.
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