WA to train public defenders, prosecutors for rural, underserved areas

Washington lawmakers took an initial step to buttress the state’s beleaguered criminal legal system last week, passing a bill to help recruit and train more attorneys for crucial jobs in public defense and prosecution.

Although attorney shortages and funding woes will likely continue to plague communities across Washington until broader solutions are brought to bear, Senate Bill 5780 could make a positive impact over time, experts said. The bill is now headed to Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk to be signed into law.

“I think this is a serious, good faith effort” by lawmakers to understand and start addressing the system’s problems, said Jason Schwarz, public defense director for Snohomish County and chair of the Washington State Bar Association’s Council on Public Defense. “I see that as a really good step.”

SB 5780, added Anna Burica, the lead public defender for Okanogan County, looks like “movement in the right direction, and we need more.”

Sponsored by Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, with Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, the bill directs state agencies to set up internship programs for aspiring public defenders and prosecutors in rural and underserved areas, subject to budget appropriations still under negotiation. It also directs the agencies to provide training to early-career public defenders and prosecutors.

It won early support in the Senate but stalled before last Friday’s deadline to pass the House, advancing at the last minute only after a Seattle Times story spotlighted the public defense crisis, advocates noted.

SB 5780 is meant to combat rampant staffing and caseload challenges that are pushing Washington’s public defense apparatus to the brink of collapse and simultaneously threatening prosecutorial operations.

When you’re accused of a crime and don’t have enough money to pay an attorney, the government is supposed to provide you with one. It’s a constitutional right. But many Washington communities are struggling to hire and retain public defenders and to keep up with cases (statewide rules cap the number of cases a defender can handle each year). So some defendants are going without proper representation, even while in jail, and some prosecutions are getting delayed or dismissed. In some places, prosecutors are in short supply, as well.

The crisis exists because the COVID pandemic created backlogs, fewer people are going to law school, young attorneys are choosing other jobs, attorneys certified for high-level felony cases are burning out and policing changes are making cases more time-consuming, among other reasons.

Rural areas and Eastern Washington communities such as Yakima and the Tri-Cities have been hit especially hard, partly because they lack amenities and resources to compete with private sector employers for qualified attorneys. Unlike most other states, Washington relies on its counties to fund their own public defense services, and those costs have grown in recent years.

“Our criminal justice system is drowning. There aren’t enough public defenders and prosecutors to ensure fair, competent, speedy trials, even though defendants are entitled to them and the public depends on them to keep our streets safe,” Torres said in a statement Friday, after SB 5780 passed.

Proponents say the bill can build pipelines from law schools to county courthouses and can give recruits support to stick with high-stress, low-pay jobs. SB 5780 attracted unanimous, bipartisan support, passing the Senate on Feb. 9 with a 49-0 vote and the House on Thursday with a 92-0 vote. Torres said she expects the bill to get the budget appropriations it needs.

“It’s tough work and the truth is that attorneys can make a lot more money going into private practice, but it’s work that’s essential for our society to function,” Dhingra, a former prosecutor, said in an interview Monday.

SB 5780 calls for the state’s Office of Public Defense to administer a “law student rural defense program” placing students and recent graduates as interns with experienced public defenders in underserved communities. Similarly, it calls for the state Criminal Justice Training Commission to oversee a “law student rural prosecution program” placing interns with prosecutors. The interns are supposed to get mentoring, pay and housing stipends, and supervising attorneys may receive some money for their time.

The bill also directs OPD to expand its existing Criminal Defense Training Academy, which is currently capped at 36 participants per year and is largely taught by volunteers because it lacks dedicated funding. SB 5780 likewise directs the CJTC to expand the training it offers to early-career prosecutors.

“What they’re trying to do [with the internships] is bring law students to rural areas and give them some exposure to what’s actually there, rather than having them make assumptions,” said Sheri Oertel, an Eastern Washington-based attorney with the nonprofit Washington Defender Association.

Students from cities will get a chance to “fall in love” with rural communities and students from those communities will get “a path back,” Burica said.

The training programs should particularly benefit attorneys practicing on their own, Oertel said. Ideally, the defender program could at some point help participants get certified for high-level felony cases, Schwarz added.

On the other hand, SB 5780 won’t solve Washington’s staffing shortages overnight. A proposal to repay student loans for early-career public defenders and prosecutors (up to $120,000 per participant) was cut from the bill by a Senate committee, and a separate bill to dramatically increase state funding for public defense services has made no progress this session.

SB 5780 won’t raise wages for defenders and prosecutors, nor will it lower caseload limits for overworked defenders, though the Washington State Bar Association and Washington state Supreme Court may adopt new limits soon.

Even after SB 5780’s loan-repayment provision was removed, reducing the bill’s estimated annual cost from about $2 million to about $1.6 million, the bill needed a late-stage push by advocates to reach a conclusive House vote.

The loan-repayment idea might be incorporated into budget talks this week, Dhingra said. If not, there’s always next year, Torres said in an interview.

Senate Bill 5773, which would have required the state to cover 10% of local public defense costs for 2024 and 50% by 2028 (up from 3% now), was a longshot with a huge price tag. But Torres, who sponsored the bill, said she wanted to raise awareness about the issue. The Washington State Association of Counties sued the state in September for more public defense funding.

“When a lawsuit is pending, many times we have to take a look and see where that’s heading,” Dhingra said Monday. “Then we can have a serious conversation in our state about who’s responsible for these costs.”