Submitted by 30686 t3_10cl4cl in Pennsylvania
We are one of only two states that still has a hodgepodge of county-by-county funding for public defenders.
"Public defender spending is set by county commissioners. Westmoreland has a $1.4 million budget for those services in 2023, a $200,000 _decrease_ from last year’s spending."
And published reports say the General Assembly Repubs have spent at least $1,000,000 on the stunt impeachment of Philadelphia's DA. 99% of them do not give, and have never given, a flying f&*k about the people of Philadelphia.
And there's that too.
I don't think Krasner seems to like doing the heavy lifts that job requires anymore than Kenney does his.
I think Philly deserves a more proactive DA but that's for the voters of Philly to decide in the next election and like you said, not for the idiots in Harrisburg to waste money on.
The whole Krasner thing was a political stunt from the beginning but Krasner deserves a lot of the criticism he gets on a few topics.
The most glaring one is his office’s ineffective efforts to both effectively prosecute and form partnerships around illegal firearm crimes including possession.
I would love to see him go to a community event in Kensington or SW Philly and explain his positions on gun crimes in areas with a lot of gun-related violence including homicides.
Krasner may have some truth that going after illegal gun possession in a city full of illegal firearms won’t reduce actual gun crimes but that’s a tough sell to average voters and especially residents in areas with a lot of gun violence which is notably up since 2019.
Sends a bad message and sets a bad perception as well.
A lot of people he hired too have left and there are a lot of complaints he expects too much & created a dour & unpleasant culture.
Public defender attorney positions are union jobs with salaries tied
to a labor deal with one year remaining. The starting salary for public
defenders in the county is about $51,000 a year.
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keep in mind, to be an attorney its 4 years of college, then 2 - 3 years of law school, then you need to pass some insanely hard tests... in order to make 24.50 an hour.
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If they want ADA's, there is an easy solution... do the job for 5 years at 24.50 an hour, and 50% of your student loan debt is removed, at 10 years, all the rest is removed. So by 35, they have 10 years experience, and 0 student loan debt, and can go do whatever else they want to do with their career while they are replaced with new attorneys.
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As long as they offer shit wages, shit work hours, and basically shitty clients, they are going to never have enough.
If you do it for 10 years you're eligible for PSLF and your remaining loans would be forgiven.
I briefly worked for a county courthouse, and all of the public defenders were just great people-using their degrees and experience to help out folks in a bad situation. All while private defense attorneys and DAs make money hand over fist.
Part of the staffing issues is the number of attorneys is down.
Between 2020 and 2022, it's half the number of attorneys to the bar compared to before.
But state wide public defender systems would be better overall would be more cost effective, and is just a better system.
We should also do away with local district attorneys too. There's zero reason every county should have one making close to $200k.
The pass rate on the bar exam from 2022 was almost 70%. Which is where it’s been for years. Were there that many fewer people taking the bar exam?? https://www.ncbex.org/statistics-and-research/bar-exam-results/
Yes and more retirements/ deaths
Do you mean new admissions to the Pa. bar have dropped by half since 2020? I didn't know that.
Allemaengel t1_j4g9a43 wrote
We half-ass so much else in this state, why not that too?
Falling down bridges/pothole craters, 2nd highest gas tax, PSP intolerance of even a single recreational joint, a highly-paid state legislature that acts part-time and does nothing even on days it's in session, a Turnpike hiking tolls every year through 2050 and so forth and so on.
Harrisburg couldn't govern itself out of a wet paper bag even if someone else tore it open for them first.