Benton County's Office of Public Defense is making the most of swift justice -- and saving about $655,000 a year.
Eric Hsu, indigent defense coordinator, told commissioners Monday that a team of lawyers from his office assigned to represent people arrested for violating court orders is working wonders.
Instead of cases dragging on, and people being held in jail for future court appearances, lawyers are getting cases resolved without their clients waiting a long time in jail.
"They have fine-tuned their system of resolution of compliance cases so much that in-court compliance dockets now have very few in-custody defendants," Hsu noted in his report presented Monday.
The bottom line means reduced jail time, which means less money charged to the cities of Kennewick, Richland, West Richland and Prosser for housing their prisoners.
"This translates to an annualized savings rate of over $655,000 when jail usage reduction for Benton County cases are factored in," Hsu reported.
"You are doing a good job saving money," said commission chairman Jim Beaver, who observed that Hsu's management of the Office of Public Defense was "going in the right direction."
But Hsu said he'd like to take some of the money back to provide additional legal services in District Court for defendants who want to plead guilty but may not be aware that they face other consequences by not having an attorney.
"I want an attorney to sit there in court to be available, if needed," Hsu said.
The most frequent problem involves immigration consequences for pleading guilty.
Having a defense attorney on stand-by, the defendant could benefit and the county would have liability protection by making the legal adviser available, Hsu explained.
It would cost about $23,400 per year, which would be shared among the county, Kennewick, Richland, West Richland and Prosser, in proportion to their need for legal services, Hsu said.
Commissioners said the idea sounds good, as well as a suggestion by Hsu to develop a better way for determining if defendants qualify for a court-appointed attorney.
Hsu said surveying the costs for retaining legal services would give the court a basis for deciding if a defendant could afford to hire an attorney.
w John Trumbo: 582-1529; jtrumbo@tricity
herald.com
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