Building Culture and Capacity: Participatory Evaluation in a Statewide Public Defender Agency

• In Event: Data in Indigent Defense: Expanding Data Capacity in Public Defense

Abstract

The Kansas State Board of Indigent’s Defense Services (BIDS) is a state-level public defender agency overseeing all felony-level public defense in the state. This unifying agency makes Kansas somewhat unique in its provision of public defense and allows BIDS to coordinate unified changes to programs, policies, and practices across the state. Over the last two years, BIDS has prioritized building research and evaluative capacity to better understand the work of our agency. We see such evaluation as having a three-fold benefit: (1) the creation of a living database through improved case management procedures; (2) increased insight into the functioning of our local criminal legal systems; and (3) the ability to identify and address issues of concern to our clients, staff, and communities across the state. Central to this effort has been to review case management and other data collection procedures and to update them using best practices and in collaboration with attorneys, staff, and outside experts. Concurrent changes in BIDS policy and capacity, including an initiative to ensure all BIDS clients have counsel at first appearances and the opening of two new trial-level offices, have provided timely opportunities to implement new case management procedures and to test our research capacity. The purpose of the current presentation is to describe our process of participatory evaluation in the context of a statewide agency with limited resources, to discuss lessons learned over the last two years, and to preview our plans for the future.

Author

• Josh Harsin, Kansas State Board of Indigents' Defense Services