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Public defenders brief senators: caseloads, digital evidence and staffing top concerns
Summary
The Board of Public Defense described workload pressures, technological demands and the need to sustain recent salary parity with prosecutors. The board seeks ongoing funding to maintain salary gains and to reduce caseloads over two years.
Bill Ward, State Public Defender, and Kevin Keiser, Chief Administrator for the Board of Public Defense, presented to the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Jan. 22 about workload, staffing and budget needs for the state’s public defense system.
Keiser said the Board of Public Defense provides constitutionally and statutorily mandated criminal‑defense services in every county courthouse and appellate court in Minnesota. He described a roughly $164,000,000 annual budget, with about 90% devoted to personnel, and noted the system handled roughly 130,000 trial‑level…
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