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Wyoming public defender warns of statewide staffing crisis, asks for targeted budget and tech support
Summary
State Public Defender Brandon Booth told the Joint Appropriations Committee the office is operating near caseload capacity statewide, described pockets of 'unavailability' that forced private counsel spending, and requested targeted budget and TRP technology support to recruit and maintain staff.
Brandon Booth, the recently appointed state public defender, told the Joint Appropriations Committee that the Office of Public Defender is meeting its caseload goal overall but is under severe strain in several jurisdictions.
Booth said the agency ‘‘is a constitutionally mandated agency that was created in 1978 through article 1, section 10 of the Wyoming constitution’’ and that the office represented 13,814 criminal cases and 153 appeals in fiscal year 2024 and 13,706 cases and 162 appeals in fiscal year 2025. He reported the agency overall was at ‘‘98% of caseload maximums,’’ while some offices far exceeded that level.
Why this matters: Booth warned that concentrated vacancies can trigger a breakdown in service. He said Campbell County reached as high as 144% of caseload maximum and that, at one point, his office declared ‘‘unavailability’’ when workloads approached 200%, requiring private counsel and costing…
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