When you need a criminal lawyer in Alamance County and can’t afford one, the court goes to a list, picks the next name and hands you a business card.
That card is for a private attorney, not an employee of the state in a public defender's office, but a lawyer on contract with North Carolina Indigent Defense Services (IDS) to represent criminal defendants.
There is a push to change that.
“We are one of the largest counties that still doesn’t have a public defender's office and one of the fastest-growing, according to projections,” said Lisa Rowden, who has been lobbying for a local office and bail reform with a small group called the Campaign for One Legal System in Alamance County.
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For Rowden and the campaign, the issue is mostly about giving defendants fair representation but she knows plenty of people, especially in a conservative community like this one, aren’t so sympathetic to people accused of crimes. So, she also makes a practical argument: this makes a more efficient justice system moving cases forward faster and getting people out of the Alamance County Detention Center more quickly, whether they go home or to prison.
Mary Pollard, executive director of IDS does not criticize the contract attorneys working in Alamance County but does say public defender offices bring more accountability and dependability and move cases faster, which makes jails less crowded.
Crowded jails, of course, cost the county government a lot of money and, as Sheriff Terry Johnson has said many times, making them more dangerous for officers and inmates. It also means people can spend years in jail before getting their day in court. Six inmates have been in the county jail since 2018 awaiting trial, according to the jail’s inmate list.
In her work helping people get out of jail on bond, Rowden said most of the defendants she has seen meet their lawyers for the first time when they are in front of a judge. She thinks greater accountability would change that.
“Having an attorney that meets with you sooner and more often is key to getting released,” said Stacy Naggy, also a part of the campaign with Rowden.
Rowden and Naggy point to a 2011 study showing public defenders get better outcomes for their clients than appointed lawyers.
Graham lawyer John Cox does not agree that a public defender's office makes court more efficient and has oriented his practice around the current system.
Alamance is one of more than a dozen central North Carolina counties that rely exclusively on contracts with defense lawyers to fulfill its Sixth Amendment obligations to provide legal counsel to all criminal defendants. That doesn’t mean they get a free lawyer. If the court finds them guilty, they could also have legal fees added to all the other fines and fees courts tack onto sentences.
Cox said he actually started his law career in Alamance County because there was no public defender. That gave him an opening to start his practice with steady contract work while he established a reputation without becoming a state employee.
A lot of lawyers dislike the contract system because it’s a flat rate in most cases whether their client pleads guilty or goes to trial, but Cox said he and the lawyers in his practice handle a high volume of cases so they don’t have a lot of wasted time in court and gives them the incentive to treat appointed clients the same as private clients.
Cox does agree there are not always enough lawyers in Alamance County available for serious cases especially when there are multiple defendants who all need their own lawyers.
Pollard said the state cut what lawyers on contract would make in 2011 from about $75 per hour to $55, which still sounds pretty good until you factor in the cost of running a practice with office space and support staff. Pay has gotten better but still isn’t what it was 11 years ago. Hundreds of private lawyers stopped taking appointed clients between 2016 and 2020, according to IDS.
While IDS says public defenders' offices are seriously understaffed, they do come with support staff like paralegals and investigators and an office.
“You’re not going to get rich doing it, but it’s a state job with a steady paycheck,” Pollard said.
The legislature sets the state budget including the cost of the court system, which includes district attorney’s offices and IDS. The legislature could add an Alamance County public defender office to the “expansion budget” in the fall if it chose, Pollard said.
“A lot of folks have talked to IDS about it, and I’ve been talking to some of the stakeholders in the community,” Pollard said, “but it’s up to the legislature.”
Isaac Groves is the Alamance County government watchdog reporter for the Times-News and the USA Today Network. Call or text 919-998-8039 with tips and comments or follow him on Twitter @TNIGroves.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Does Alamance County need a public defender's office and how would it get one?
