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Public Defender Council appeals for funding to cover conflict counsel costs and start pay parity; committee seeks data
Summary
The Georgia Public Defender Council requested amended FY26 funds to continue conflict-counsel contracts (previously augmented by ARPA), asked to begin a new APD pay scale Jan.1 (half-year cost quoted ~ $4.15 million) and described programmatic supports like the Ladders youth program. Committee members pressed for jurisdictional breakdowns and clearer monthly and per-case spending figures.
The Georgia Public Defender Council (GPDC) told the Appropriations Judicial Committee that rising conflict-counsel costs and long pandemic-related backlogs require supplemental FY26 funding and policy changes to stabilize the indigent defense system.
Umutayo Ali, GPDC executive director, and agency staff laid out three main items: (1) requests to continue funds that had been covered by ARPA for large multi-defendant conflict cases, (2) a proposal to begin the assistant public defenders' (APD) pay scale on Jan. 1 (the half-year cost presented as $4,148,091), and (3) operational funding for conflict contractors. Ali said the agency is making internal changes and implementing new protocols in response…
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