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Indigent Defense Systems
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Right to counsel and methods for providing indigent criminal defense

The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishes the right to counsel in federal criminal prosecution. Through a series of landmark decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, the right to counsel has been extended to all criminal prosecutions, state or federal, felony or misdemeanor, that carry a sentence of imprisonment.

States and localities use several methods for delivering indigent criminal defense services:

  • public defender programs
  • assigned counsel programs
  • contract attorneys.

The federal system also has several types of programs to deliver indigent criminal defense:

  • public defender organizations
  • community defender organizations
  • panel attorneys.

 

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State-Administered Indigent Defense Systems, 2013 Describes the methods for providing representation in criminal defense and civil, juvenile and appeals cases in 28 states and the District of Columbia.
  Summary (PDF 244K) | Full report (PDF 958K) | ASCII file (31K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 31K)

Indigent Defense Services in the United States, FY 2008–2012 - Updated Describes the indigent defense system for each state and the District of Columbia, including information on administration, methods of operation, and funding.
  Full report (PDF 787K) | ASCII file (162K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 68K)

State Government Indigent Defense Expenditures, FY 2008–2012 - Updated Provides data on state government indigent defense expenditures for fiscal years 2008 through 2012.
  Full report (PDF 997K) | ASCII file (38K) | Comma-delimited format (CSV) (Zip format 26K)

State Public Defender Programs, 2007 Examines the provision of public defender services in the 22 states that had an entirely state-funded and state-administered indigent defense program in 2007.
  Press Release | Full report (PDF 460KB) | ASCII file (43KB) | Spreadsheet (445KB)

County-based and Local Public Defender Offices, 2007 Examines the provision of public defender services in the 27 states and the District of Columbia in which indigent defense services were funded and administered by counties or local jurisdictions in 2007.
  Press Release | Full report (PDF 393KB) | ASCII file (36KB) | Spreadsheet (18KB)

Public Defender Offices, 2007 - Statistical Tables (Revised) Examines offices that provide representation for indigent defendants through a salaried staff of full-time or part-time attorneys who are employed as direct government employees or through a public, nonprofit organization.
  Acrobat file (PDF 1M) | ASCII file (13K) | Zip format (Spreadsheet 16K) | About the source data

State-Funded Indigent Defense Services, 1999 Presents findings from data collected as part of the 1999 National Survey of Indigent Defense Systems in the 21 states where the state government provides virtually all of the funding for indigent defense services.
  Full report (PDF 417K) | ASCII file (22K) | ZIP Format (Spreadsheet 23K) | Codebooks and Datasets

Indigent Defense Services in Large Counties, 1999 & Defense Counsel in Criminal Cases "Two of three felony defendants represented by publicly-financed counsel"
  Press Release | Indigent Defense Services in Large Counties, 1999 (More information about this release) | Defense Counsel in Criminal Cases (More information about this release)

Indigent Defense Services in Large Counties, 1999 Describes the methods by which criminal indigent defense is delivered in the Nation's 100 most populous counties.
  Press Release | Full report (PDF 153K) | ASCII file (36K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 18K) | Codebooks and Datasets

Defense Counsel in Criminal Cases Examines issues of legal representation for defendants in federal district court and large local jurisdictions, and inmates in local jails and federal and state prison.
  Press Release | Full report (PDF 127K) | ASCII file (35K) | Spreadsheet (Zip format 30K) | Codebooks and Datasets

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