By Brian Eason | Colorado Sun
Colorado needs three times the number of public defenders it employs today to meet new workload standards for criminal defense, according to a national study backed by the American Bar Association.
For next budget year, which starts July 1, Colorado’s Office of the State Public Defender is asking for 70 more attorneys and 58 new support staff, including paralegals and investigators, at a total cost of $14.7 million.
That’s still far less than 230 new attorneys the office says it needs — let alone the 700-plus hires it would take to triple current staffing levels to meet the study’s recommendations.
But even the partial request was enough to shock members of Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee.