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Indigent Defense Commission seeks ongoing grant funding and appellate resources; members discuss forensic social-worker pilot
Summary
Matt Maraza of the Indigent Defense Commission described a request to make $700,000 in grant support ongoing and asked for $1.1M ongoing for appellate defense staffing to address a growing backlog; lawmakers and the commission discussed a Weber County forensic social-worker pilot that reduces jail days and whether funding belongs in criminal-justice or HHS budgets.
Matt Maraza, Executive Director of the Indigent Defense Commission (IDC), told the subcommittee the IDC was created to standardize and strengthen indigent defense across counties. He described three main program areas: a network of managing defenders, expanded training (about 1,300 attendees last year) and a grant program that distributed roughly $7.4M to counties to fund attorney positions, largely in rural areas.
Maraza requested that a $700,000 grant program be made ongoing to sustain attorney positions in rural counties and asked for $1.1M in ongoing funding for an indigent appellate defense division that has seen appeals rise (from ~20 to over 90 filings in rural counties) while staffing remained flat, producing a backlog of about 50 pending appeals.
Committee members and Maraza discussed a forensic social-worker pilot run out of Weber County that provides mitigation-focused assessments, gathers records and produces plans used at sentencing and plea discussions. Maraza said program data show the social-worker interventions reduce jail days and can effectively pay for themselves through avoided bed-days; he estimated social-worker costs are a small portion (about 5%) of IDC’s grant budget. Legislators asked who should fund such positions (criminal-justice budgets vs. Health & Human Services) and urged clarity on mission boundaries and budget lines before making social-service funding permanent under IDC grants.
