The state's district attorneys continue to make the case that the state is paying more for the defense of criminal defendants than it is for their prosecution. The situation poses a threat to the public's safety, yet defies simple solution.
The battle was joined once again this week in a packed conference room at Suffolk Law School in downtown Boston. Billed as a discussion of "budget battles in a down economy," the event attracted lawyers on both sides of the fiscal divide — prosecutors who say they are overworked and underpaid, and their foes from across the aisle who point out the defense of the indigent is a core principle of our system of justice.
Spokesmen for the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) agree that the DAs need more resources, but are insistent that the money not come out of its budget. And the agency, which provides attorneys for those defendants declared too poor to pay for their own defense, has some powerful allies on Beacon Hill.
The problem: As panelist Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Association pointed out, even in an improving economy, the squeeze on the state's resources is only going to get worse over the next few years. The federal stimulus money that helped prop up state and local budgets over the past couple of years is about to run out, and there is no appetite among voters or their elected representatives for increased taxes.
One solution offered by the defense side, and supported to some extent by the prosecutors, is to consider downgrading some of what are currently nonviolent misdemeanors into civil infractions that would entail a fine, but no threat of jail time.
Such a shift, though it goes against the grain of the law-and-order mentality so prevalent in political discourse these days, makes sense. The fact is that government can't afford — and taxpayers are unwilling to pay for — the hard line being taken on even minor offenses these days.
Some reordering of priorities, similar to the decriminalization of simple marijuana possession approved in Massachusetts recently, seems in order.
Such reform would free prosecutors to focus their time and effort on putting the really dangerous and most persistent offenders behind bars without sacrificing our constitutional obligation to provide those charged with crimes a vigorous defense regardless of their financial circumstances.
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