T he U.S. Constitution provides a lawyer to an accused person who cannot afford one. The Supreme Court made that clear in a 1963 case called Gideon v. Wainwright.

Pondering this brings many to the uneasy realization that they probably couldn’t afford a qualified lawyer if accused of a crime. This reality has overwhelmed the public defenders in Washington state and financially strapped the counties and cities that are required to fund defenders.

The Washington Legislature is now considering state funds to assist local governments with their public defender obligation. With urging from the state bar association, judges and counties and cities, House Bill 1542 unanimously passed the House and is now pending in the Senate.

Because cities and counties bear most public defender costs in Washington, we have a patchwork public defense system. Each town has had to develop its own program, with little consistency, accountability or standards.

Though standards have been developed by the state bar association and are incorporated into Washington law, many local governments either refuse to comply or can’t afford to. HB 1542 would provide funds to counties or cities that show progress toward these standards. Local governments would at last be able to assist defenders toward realistic caseloads, training, supervision and appropriate investigation.

In Spokane, in spite of conscientious leadership, the situation is dire. Last year each attorney in the city of Spokane’s Public Defenders Office handled at least 100 clients more than the 300 permitted by standards.

In the Spokane County Defender’s Office in 2004, attorneys handled too many cases and operated with less than half of the standard number of investigators. Supervisors managed far more than the recommended number of attorneys and handled cases themselves. One group of lawyers handled 200 felonies apiece — 50 cases over the standard of 150. The surplus included murders and “three-strikes” life-without-parole cases. Another unit of juvenile lawyers had to handle 342 cases apiece, though the standard is 250.

With about 200 court days a year, a lawyer with 342 cases has an average of 1.7 cases a day, and only 4.7 hours for each case. In many cases that is simply not enough time to do the necessary investigation and legal research, consult with the client and the family, meet with the prosecutor, write briefs, and attend court hearings.

It’s a recipe for disaster. There is a very real risk of innocent people being convicted or guilty people being given inappropriately long sentences.

The human and financial cost of imprisoning wrongfully convicted people is staggering. There is mounting evidence that as many as 10,000 wrongful convictions occur annually nationwide. And when an innocent person sits in prison, or on death row, the real criminal is on the street.

In 2004 the Spokane County Bar Association urged better funding for public defense, pointing out that defenders cannot control the number of cases they take on, and are not allowed to do less work on one case simply because they have too many other cases.

In 2004 the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington reported that the lack of meaningful standards and the failure of the state to monitor defense services has resulted in a checkered system with no guarantee that a poor person will get a fair trial. The state bar association expressed similar concerns.

In 2003, the American and Washington bar associations concluded that high caseloads and a lack of training mean inadequate representation for many children, and in some cases no representation at all. Every day in Washington, scores of adult defendants are convicted without ever having talked to a lawyer.

Investing in public defense reduces other criminal justice costs. In Spokane, the jail is approaching 150 percent of capacity, and costs are skyrocketing. Thurston County decided that hiring more public defenders to handle cases more promptly was cheaper than building more jails to hold the rising number of pre-trial detainees. Effective public defense also saves money on appeals and retrials caused by ineffective assistance and avoids the civil lawsuits which follow.

The ABA reviewed the state of public defense 40 years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Gideon decision, which firmly established the right to court-appointed counsel in state courts for every felony defendant. The report found that the American justice system is failing to protect the rights and liberty of the poorest defendants.

The Legislature should take the first step toward repairing what the ABA calls “Gideon’s Broken Promise” by passing HB 1542 and providing state funds for public defense.