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State public defender requests loan-repayment incentive and warns of caseload spikes
Summary
State Public Defender Patty Bennett told the committee that Cheyenne misdemeanor caseloads rose from about 1,000 to 2,500 over five years and asked for a bill modeled on medical loan-reimbursement statutes to help recruit and retain defenders for underserved offices; the committee discussed feasibility and funding.
Patty Bennett, the newly appointed state public defender, described staffing and caseload strains across the agency and urged the committee to consider a student-loan reimbursement program for attorneys who commit to working in underserved areas. "If an attorney is willing to spend three years in an underserved area, then they would be eligible for $30,000 of student loan reimbursement per year," she said while acknowledging funding and program-design questions.
Bennett described vacancy problems in Campbell County (covering Crook and Weston counties) and said Cheyenne's misdemeanor filings grew from roughly 1,000 to 2,500 over five years. She proposed two tracks (larger short-term reimbursement for new attorneys in hard-to-fill offices and smaller, longer-term support for midcareer retention) and suggested using a portion of public-defender fee revenue or other appropriations to fund the program. Committee members asked for further fiscal detail and suggested coordination with the University of Wyoming and prior rural-lawyer proposals.
