Assessing the Degree to Which Public Defense Providers are Able to Adhere to the ABA Ten Principles and Priority Areas Noted for Technical Assistance

• In Event: Policy Panel: Legal Services for the Indigent – The State of the Nation

Abstract

As part of the 2013 Initiative of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to Improve
the Effectiveness of Right to Counsel Services, American University in partnership
with the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, are conducting the "Right To
Counsel/Ten Principles Technical Assistance Project" to enhance defenders' ability
to adhere to the ABA Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System. A national
survey of public defense providers was conducted to obtain their perspectives on the
degree to which they were able to adhere to the Ten Principles, including selected
"benchmarks" associated with each of the Principles, obstacles encountered,
promising practices, and areas for which technical assistance would be useful. The
survey was distributed to over 1,100 public defense providers working in a wide
range of contexts in an effort to obtain as broad a perspective as possible on
challenges public defense providers are encountering and areas for which technical
assistance might be useful. The presentation will provide a synopsis of the results
of the survey, with particular focus on those Principles that appear to be providing
the greatest challenges for adherence, and the nature of information and research
necessary to support the priority technical assistance needs identified.

Author

• Caroline Cooper, American University