Campaign Action
Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate who was once a powerful California prosecutor, is introducing legislation to help the other side—the public defenders. Her legislation is intended to make sure publicly funded defense attorneys have a level playing field with publicly funded prosecutors.
"After spending my career around the criminal justice system, I've seen up close how it can fail to ensure that poor defendants receive a fair trial and due process, as guaranteed to all of us in our Constitution," Harris said in a statement sent to CNN announcing her legislation. "All too often, our public defenders are overworked and lack sufficient resources. This makes public defense unsustainable over the long haul. And the person who suffers is the defendant, whose liberty is on the line. It's wrong, and it's the opposite of justice."
The bill would bring public defenders' salaries on par with those of prosecutors over a period of five years, through a $250 million federal grant program. It would also set work-load limits for full-time public defenders and provide funds for both training and reauthorizing student loan repayment programs. Harris has got the support of public defenders' organizations and advocates who argue that it will make public defense more attractive to some of the best lawyers. "In too many places, public defenders are so under resourced, overwhelmed, and beaten down, that they have become resigned to processing people through the system," Jon Rapping, founder of Gideon's Promise, a non-profit public defender advocacy group, told CNN.
That's not justice for the people they're representing, disproportionately people of color and all people with low income. On the presidential campaign trail, Harris has argued that her key motivation for becoming a prosecutor was "to fight for a more fair criminal justice system." She's previously introduced legislation to reform the cash bail system, and that's also part of her campaign. "It's long past time to address bail reform across the country," she tweeted in February. "Too often, poor people sit in jail because they don't have the money to pay bail, while someone with the same offense but money in their back pocket gets out. This is a serious injustice."