LJC in Calcasieu Parish
Calcasieu Parish suffers some of the highest caseloads of any public defender office in the state. Calcasieu Parish was the site of a 2004 study, which found that the felony caseload of attorneys in Calcasieu Parish Public Defender's Office is three times greater than state guidelines, and higher still that what national standards recommend. This backlog, combined with other factors, pushed the average time from arrest to disposition of a felony case in Calcasieu Parish to 501 days, compared to a national average of 214 days. Cases that go to trial can take up to three years or more, often while the defendant languishes in jail.
Contesting the lack of resources that are available to defendants, Lake Charles is the home of Adrian Citizen, who waited nearly 2,200 days in jail for the resources to become available to provide him with an attorney. After waiting for a trial for nearly 6 years Mr. Citizen accepted a plea bargain rather than continue to wait in jail.
Adrian Citizen’s plight was not an isolated case. A class-action lawsuit was filed in Calcasieu in September 2004, on behalf of a class of indigent defendants who had been, at the time of filing, in prison for at least 9 months without having seen their attorney. This litigation is still pending, awaiting a determination that the passage of the Louisiana Public Defender Act has not brought significant changes to the Calcasieu Public Defender Office.
Because the backlog in the Calcasieu criminal justice system costs tax payers money and brings unnecessary harm to defendants, their families and the Lake Charles community, LJC has undertaken a training program to encourage defenders to more aggressively advocate for alternative sentencing options for their clients.
Through community outreach and training opportunities, LJC is supporting the Calcasieu Public Defender Office to develop creative solutions to the severe inadequacies in its budget. LJC and the Calcasieu Public Defender Office are devoting equal time to juvenile, misdemeanor and adult attorneys and are seeking significant funding to hire support staff to do prison interviews immediately upon intake in order to advocate for reduced bond and other opportunities to return non-threatening defendants to the community while they wait for the resolution of their case.
LJC’s commitment to the quality of counsel provided by the Calcasieu Public Defender Office enhances our capability to highlight the continuing crisis in public defense and improve public awareness of, and support for, continuing reform efforts. The Calcasieu Public Defender Office, along with the Louisiana Justice Coalition and Orleans Public Defenders, represents Louisiana as part of the Community Oriented Defender Network, coordinated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The 2003 class-action complaint can be viewed here: Calcasieu Complaint NACDL
The 2004 study, “Defending the Indigent in Southwest Louisiana” can be viewed here: LACDL Calcasieu Parish Report
The 2006 Guest Column, “Doing Calcasieu Time: Broken System Means Defendants Wait Years for Trial at Taxpayer Expense” can be viewed here: LJC-Media 2006/12/10 American Press