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Champaign County public defender says office remains understaffed as caseloads rise
Summary
Public Defender Liz Pollock told the Committee of the Whole that the office is nearly fully staffed but carries caseloads well above established defender standards and that several positions depend on grant funding that could be at risk.
Liz Pollock, Champaign County public defender, briefed the Committee of the Whole on the office's year-end workload, staffing and grant-funded positions.
"We are just short of fully staffed. We have 16 of 17 attorney positions filled," Pollock said, and added that case loads remain well above long-standing national standards. She told the committee that many felony attorneys handle between 175 and 250 cases, while older professional guidelines recommended a maximum caseload of about 50 at a time.
Pollock said the office handles roughly 95 percent of felony cases in the circuit and a majority of misdemeanors and traffic cases, because privately retained counsel is often not affordable for low-income defendants. She highlighted a recently created mitigation specialist team (two social workers) funded by grants; that team has worked on more than 60 cases in six months to connect clients with housing, benefits and treatment.
The public defender said several positions are supported by state and federal grants (she named two state Supreme Court grants and three federal-related grants) and said upcoming potential cuts in grant funding would put some of those five grant-funded positions at risk. She signaled she would return to the board for support if grant funding is reduced.
Board members thanked Pollock for the office's work and urged the county to prioritize retaining staff; one member said that if the county could find money for other initiatives (for example, advertising), the county could also find funding to preserve public-defender staff.
No formal county action was taken at this meeting; Pollock asked the board to be prepared to consider requests if federal or state grant funding is cut.
