Jail bars

The Deschutes County Courthouse had “a little miracle” on Tuesday. Attorneys showed up and took on the cases of unrepresented defendants, so no defendants would be released from custody.

State Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, a former Deschutes County deputy district attorney, stepped up to take one of the cases. “It was kind of a little miracle,” Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels said. “I was expecting it to be much worse.”

Don’t count on weekly miracles to stop the public defender crisis in Deschutes County. If you thought the public defender crisis was only a problem for accused criminals, no, it is not.

It’s a public safety issue. It delays justice for alleged victims. People accused of sexual abuse and of endangering children have been released from custody in Deschutes County, because there are no public defenders available to represent them.

Deschutes County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Well Ashby said he gets asked: “If this person is charged with really, really bad or really, really, really bad crimes, then you hold them right? Well, the answer is no. The factors are a person is constitutionally entitled to an attorney. They have requested an attorney. They qualify for an attorney. And we don’t have one for them.”

Gunnels and Ashby were speaking Tuesday at a meeting of the Deschutes County Public Safety Coordinating Council. It’s where representatives of many sides of the justice system meet to discuss problems and coordinating solutions.

Other parts of Oregon and the country have already been struggling to find public defenders for people who need them. It’s now here.

“We had an individual who did not have English as his primary language,” Ashby said. “It really puts the court — not in a difficult situation — in a situation where it is almost impossible to communicate with a defendant because the defendant has requested an attorney. And so you are kind of doing a workaround on that. Saying: ‘Hey, you know, I am with the government and I am here to help, so I am just going to ask you a few questions.’ That’s not a real great space for the court to be in, at all. The district attorney wisely sends down their most experienced people to these hearings, because these hearings have led to the release of individuals in custody who are not represented. The crimes of the accused … are as bad as they get.”

Legislators have directed more money at the problem. The Oregon Public Defense Commission is working on initiatives. The state’s public defender crisis got worse in Deschutes County.

When defendants are unrepresented, when they are charged with serious crimes and may be released from custody, when the state is not meeting a basic Constitutional requirement, everybody loses.