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Indigent Defense requests recurring staff funding and a $5.6 million grant to pilot 3-tier case management
Summary
Hugh Ryan, director of the Indigent Defense Commission, asked the Criminal Justice Budget Subcommittee for recurring staff and IT funding and proposed a $5.6 million grant program to support a three-tier system prosecutors and public defenders say speeds case processing.
Hugh Ryan, director of the Indigent Defense Commission, told the Criminal Justice Budget Subcommittee his agency is asking for recurring staff and information-technology positions and a grant program to support a three-tier case-management model the state Supreme Court encouraged in a February 2023 docket-management order.
Ryan described the commission as a large manager of defense services with about 72 FTEs in central staff and oversight of more than 500 attorneys. "We manage over 500 and something lawyers," he said, noting the agency counts public defenders and contract attorneys together for capacity planning. Ryan said the recent funding increase allowed the agency to raise public defender counts from about 330 to 389.5 full-time equivalents.
The commission’s budget request has two pieces: roughly $2.98 million in recurring funding for staff and IT positions and a $5.6 million grant pool the agency would award to local offices that implement a three-tier model. Ryan said the grant would be administered by the commission and would require local entities to apply for awards and adopt the model to receive funding.
Solicitor Duffy Stone, Fourteenth Circuit solicitor and chair of the prosecution commission, described the three-tier model and reported results from a circuit-level pilot. Stone said the model organizes teams so one group triages incoming cases, another prepares cases, and a third runs court. "Within 15 months, our docket right now is under 4,000," Stone said of his 14th Circuit pilot, reporting a drop from about 6,000 pending cases. He added overall productivity in his circuit increased by "87%" and that diversion and specialty court referrals rose materially.
Why it matters: Ryan and Stone said the model improves time-to-resolution, reduces backlogs and increases diversion when appropriate, benefiting defendants, victims and county jails. Stone said the Supreme Court’s docket-management order encourages the approach where resources allow and characterized the grant as an incentive to adopt the practice.
What was discussed: Committee members asked about retention and hiring. Ryan credited earlier funding for making hiring and retention easier, noting vacancies had fallen from higher historical levels to about 22 vacancies at the time of the presentation. Stone emphasized that pay and work environment both matter for retention.
No committee action was taken during the presentation. Ryan said the commission would include a proviso in the request to allow unused grant money to be carried forward if local offices did not spend awards in the first year.
Ending: Ryan and Stone asked the subcommittee to consider recurring funding for staff and IT and the grant to scale the three-tier approach in circuits that can hire the required teams.
