 A note from Dave Chapman, King County's Public Defender
The Department of Public Defense was created one year ago, after a class-action lawsuit and state Supreme Court ruling found that the county’s then privately employed public defenders were “arms and agents” of the county. I can attest to the fact that it’s been quite a year.
The creation of a new department required huge infrastructure changes, complex under any circumstance but especially so when your work is legal representation of thousands of indigent clients. It meant dozens of new processes for our nearly 400 new employees, who found themselves having to do everything from record their time differently to learn how to check out a county-owned car. It also has meant a significant culture shift: Working for a new department in the county is far different from working for one of four small, nonprofit law firms.
The integration is not complete. We’re still in the midst of creating a unified case management system. We’ve yet to bring our downtown staff under one roof. Some employees continue to question this new department, and supporting them through the process continues to a big part of our work.
But we’ve also made major strides in this year since DPD came into being. And perhaps most important, throughout this complex transition, we’ve continued to provide our clients with excellent legal services – robust and skilled advocacy that has made public defense in King County among the best in the nation. It’s truly remarkable that in the midst of this huge sea change, our employees have not missed a beat. It speaks well of our support staff, attorneys, social workers, investigators and paralegals. It also speaks well of those who worked for the county's Office of Public Defense, DPD's predecessor – people who have done their part to make this transition as seamless as possible.
In the last few weeks, I’ve been working with my management team on our 2015-17 strategic plan, which has given us an opportunity to discuss our goals and aspirations as a new department moving forward. What does success look like? How do we make it happen? What, really, do we stand for?
In the process, we’ve come up with a vision statement that the entire team embraces: “King County’s public defense system serves as a national model renowned for excellent legal representation and advocacy, ensuring an equitable system of justice by safeguarding the constitutional and legal rights of all members of our community.”
We also have a working mission statement: “The King County Department of Public Defense shall provide effective, client-centered legal representation and advocacy through an independent, well-trained, responsible public defender system.”
What all of this means is that high-quality, independent public defense continues to be the aspiration that drives us. It means that we’re fully committed to providing the best public defense services anywhere in the country. It means we’ll strive to address the collateral consequences defendants face when they get caught up in the criminal justice system, consequences that – if not addressed – can make their lives more difficult for decades.
A year from now, we’ll have many more successes to report. We’ll have our case management system in place. We'll have greater confidence in our independence and our ability to advocate on behalf of our clients. I also believe we’ll see more evidence of the power and strength that comes from a unified public defense system, a department that now has a seat at the table.
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 Executive's stellar appointments inspire confidence, hope
By Anne Daly
King County Executive Dow Constantine has forwarded 11 names to the County Council for appointment to the new Public Defense Advisory Board, and I’m deeply impressed by the people he has selected. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a more stellar group to serve on this critical board.
Among those nominated are several regional, even national, leaders in public defense – including a former federal public defender, a national expert in the ethics of public defense, a highly regarded former Superior Court judge and individuals with a deep commitment to youth, veterans, people with mental illness and the many other clients we serve.
But perhaps most important, these are all strong and independent thinkers, people who won’t be afraid to speak their mind when the need arises and who will work to ensure our public defense system in King County remains strong, independent and client-focused.
As someone who has given over much of my professional life to public defense, I have sometimes worried about a new system of public defense housed entirely within the county. With the appointment of these exceptional individuals to serve on this new board, I now feel a much greater sense of confidence in our department’s future. The fact that the Executive would appoint such strong individuals suggests to me that the county truly is committed to an independent department and is willing to invest in a high-quality system of public defense.
This group understands the resources needed to support a quality system. They also understand the impact the criminal justice system has on clients – its disproportionality, the collateral consequences it triggers, the impact on everything from housing to employment to immigration. This is a group with a demonstrated commitment to tackling these issues.
So who are these 11 appointees?
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Saudia Abdullah, director of Pioneer Human Service’s Federal Reentry Programs, which help people who have been incarcerated make a successful transition to community life.
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Matt Adams, legal director at Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and the recent recipient of the Jack Wasserman Memorial Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
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Kim Ambrose, a senior lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law, director of a UW clinic she founded that focuses on racial disparities in the juvenile justice system and a former public defender.
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Hon. Sharon Armstrong, a retired King County Superior Court judge who twice served as chief criminal judge and co-chaired an advisory committee on public defender compensation models.
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Marc Boman, a partner at Perkins Coie who has played a leading role in establishing standards for excellence in public defense.
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Leo Flor, an attorney and Equal Justice Works fellow at the Northwest Justice Project who specializes in veterans’ issues and an Army veteran with combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Tom Hillier, the recently retired Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Washington who has been hailed for his work with indigent defendants and advocacy for federal sentencing reform.
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Paul Holland, an associate dean for academic affairs at the Seattle University School of Law and the former director of SU’s Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinic, which enables law students to work on real cases to serve poor and marginalized populations.
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Sophia Byrd McSherry, an attorney and deputy director of the Washington State Office of Public Defense who recently served on the King County Public Defense Criminal Justice Advisory Task Force.
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Jeffery Robinson, a partner at Schroeter, Goldmark, Bender and a nationally recognized trial attorney who is the past president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a recipient of its prestigious William O. Douglas award.
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John Strait, an associate professor of law at the Seattle University School of Law and a national expert on public defense and ethics.
We’re fortunate to have so many accomplished individuals who care about the quality of public defense in King County. And we’re fortunate that these 11 stellar professionals have agreed to serve. It’s an auspicious time for public defense in our region, made all the more promising with the appointment of this board.
– Anne Daly is one of DPD's division directors and the former executive director of Society of Counsel Representing Accused Persons. She just completed a term as president of the King County Bar Association.
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 Abbey Perkins, center, listens to a client in King County District Court, where the mental health court is housed. She's concerned about the length of time it takes for clients to get the treatment they need for competency restoration. To her left is Deputy Prosecutor Manka Dhingra. Photo: Leslie Brown.
Public defender Abbey Perkins recently represented a Seattle man who sat in the King County Jail for more than 45 days for a crime that likely would have meant a 20- to 30-day sentence had he been convicted. The reason? He needed psychiatric care at Western State Hospital to get stabilized before he could stand trial, and Western State didn’t have the staff to treat him.
“This happens often,” said Perkins, an attorney in the county's Department of Public Defense (DPD) who staffs the county’s mental health court. “People sit in jail and wait and wait and wait. And when you go to court and ask why this is happening, you hear the same mantra over and over again. They don’t have enough staff.”
Perkins is among several public defenders who have grown increasingly alarmed over the time it takes for people in King County to receive court-ordered competency evaluations and restorative services – called “competency restoration” – usually provided in this region by Western State Hospital. The delays take a toll on vulnerable people, she said. Disability Rights Washington examined the issue of long waits for competency restoration and released a report last year called “Lost and Forgotten.” Often, the advocacy group found, inmates sitting in jail awaiting competency restoration end up in far worse psychological shape than when they entered – psychotic, frightened, even suicidal, the report said.
“A lot of people are suffering while waiting for beds,” Perkins said.
The issue is front and center right now in part because of a legislative effort to address the problem. The Legislature passed Senate Bill 6492 in 2012, which sets timelines for the completion of competency restoration services for Western and Eastern State Hospitals. Unfortunately, according to a report issued two months ago by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC), the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), which runs the two hospitals, has not met those targets. It has also failed to implement a plan it put in place in response to a JLARC audit and to provide accurate performance information to evaluators, JLARC reports.
Recently, Perkins and Daron Morris, another public defender in King County, were among 30 people who met with three psychologists hired by DSHS to examine competency restoration in Washington. The meeting was a positive step, bringing several stakeholders together for a frank discussion about what many realize is a growing problem. The public defenders were troubled, however, by some of what they heard at that meeting – including a suggestion that jails take on the job of competency restoration.
“It’s a terrible idea,” said Morris, a deputy director of one of DPD’s four divisions.
Jails are far from therapeutic settings, both Perkins and Morris pointed out. Corrections officers are trained in behavior modification – how to control inmates in sometimes tense or crowded situations – not the safe treatment of people who are mentally ill, they said. What’s more, a jail-by-jail approach would undermine the goal of a statewide system that could be monitored and evaluated.
“You can’t have a quality, uniform system of restoration in jails,” Morris said.
Funding, of course, is a big part of the problem. Western and Eastern State Hospitals struggle with staff retention, in part, Morris said, because of a long history of underpaying staff psychiatrists and psychologists. But at least one fresh idea has garnered some enthusiasm in the defense community – “out-of-custody restoration,” where community-based clinics would help defendants become competent to stand trial.
Some at the recent meeting questioned how such an approach would work. A huge part of competency restoration is forcing a defendant to take medication. How could forced medication occur in a community-based setting, some asked.
Morris said he thinks it’s doable. “If people understand their liberty is conditioned on them taking their medication and abiding by treatment conditions, they'll very likely do it because they don't want to be held at the jail or at Western State."
Both Perkins and Morris said such an approach would take a strong commitment from DSHS and various stakeholders but might ultimately prove more cost-effective to taxpayers by reducing the use of costly hospital beds and jail cells. At the county’s mental health court, Perkins said, she and others who work there have crafted out-of-custody competency restoration plans on a case-by-case basis.
“But we can’t just cobble together answers at the local level,” she said. “Ultimately, it’s a state responsibility, and the state needs to step up and address this on a statewide level.”
Many feel African-Americans don't get a fair shake
A recent survey about the public’s perceptions of justice across the state revealed findings not surprising to those who work in public defense: African Americans are twice as likely to report instances of unfair treatment from court officials and four times more likely to report disrespectful treatment compared to whites.
Such a finding has profound ramifications, according to one of the two researchers who undertook the study for the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission. “Feelings of injustice have a visceral, long-lasting impact,” said Dr. Mark Peffley, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Jeffery Mondak, a professor at the University of Illinois and another one of the researchers, said people’s experiences form the basis for their perceptions about the criminal justice system, perceptions that are amplified by what they hear from others in their social and family circles. “People’s evaluations of the criminal justice system aren’t random,” he said. “They have a systemic basis to them.”
The two academics discussed their findings at a public forum held on June 9 in Olympia sponsored by the minority and justice commission, the Washington Defenders Association, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs and the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center. Several people from King County’s Department of Public Defense attended the meeting, which began with a welcome from Chief Justice Barbara Madsen.
The research, conducted by the two professors and a third one, Dr. Jon Hurwitz of the University of Pittsburgh, was based on a survey of 1,524 Washingtonians from four groups – whites, African-Americans, Latino/Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders. Their findings indicate what they called a “huge racial divide” in Washington state, a divide other pollsters have identified across the country and that has gotten worse over the years, not better.
Among their findings:
- The majority of all three minority groups perceive racial bias in police conduct and the court system. For instance, they believe the police are more likely to stop and question African Americans and Latinos than whites; that the courts give harsher sentences to African Americans and Latinos than to whites; and that police are more concerned about crimes against whites than crimes against minorities.
- Researchers found substantial differences between whites and African Americans when asked about negative encounters with police. Eleven percent of the white respondents reported “disrespectful” treatment from the police at least once, compared to 62 percent of African Americans who said they had experienced disrespectful treatment.
- These perceptions and experiences translate into more cynical views about the justice system in its totality. Those who have experienced negative encounters with the police, for instance, are substantially more likely to see a lack of fairness in the courts.
But the researchers also found what Peffley called “a staggering amount of agreement” on the existence of this kind of disproportionality, a growing awareness that seemed to coincide with the election of Barack Obama, he said. The majority of respondents from all four racial groups, for instance, believe the court system is racially biased and heavily stacked against the poor and African Americans: 61 percent of white respondents, 71 percent of Asians, 74 percent of Latinos and 81 percent of black respondents said an African American is more likely to be found guilty of a crime he didn’t commit than a white defendant.
“There are large segments of the state population that are receptive to appeals to reforming some of the huge disparities we see in the criminal justice system,” Peffley said.
David Chapman, King County’s interim public defender, attended the symposium and said many of the findings confirmed what he and others who work in public defense see and experience every day. "We represent many people of color, and we know they often feel as though the system is stacked against them," he said. "That's why we work so hard to try to ensure they get an excellent defense and fair treatment in the courtroom."
 Nearly once a month, three Department of Public Defense employees give over an evening to help adults struggling with the long-lasting repercussions of mistakes they made as teenagers. Some of the people who show up at the free legal clinic can’t get a job; others are denied housing; still others get by-passed for graduate school – all because of a criminal record from their days as a youth.
The DPD employees – Kari Boyum, an attorney, Matthew Pang, also an attorney, and Ryan Gray, an investigator – work with law students and other legal professionals at the monthly clinic held at one of DPD's offices. Their job is to help people navigate a complex legal process, enabling them to petition the court to get their juvenile records sealed. All of those who work at the clinic are volunteers.
The Juvenile Record Sealing Project began in 2004, launched by George Yeannakis, now special counsel to TeamChild, and Kim Ambrose, a law professor at the University of Washington, under the auspices of Street Youth Legal Advocates of Washington (SYLAW). Today, a decade later, Yeannakis estimates the clinic has helped at least 500 clients seal around 1,000 records. It’s now managed by TeamChild.
The need is great, Yeannakis says. Washington is one of the few states in the country that does not keep juvenile records confidential. In fact, up until last October, the state sold these records to background check companies. What’s more, Yeannakis added, TeamChild couldn’t do this work without the help of several steady volunteers, including Boyum, Pang and Gray. “It’s been great to have such consistent volunteers,” he said.
The three say they volunteer because they’re troubled by a system that allows people to be haunted by past mistakes, especially ones that took place during their teens. “I don’t think that’s how our society should be,” Pang said. “You obviously can’t have kids committing violent offenses. But some of these things are minor, and it really marks them as a problem. … They do something stupid, but then they’re branded for life.”
Gray, who as an investigator runs the criminal histories for the monthly clinic, said many of the people who show up have dramatically turned their lives around. “But they can’t get a house because an Assault 2 from 1998 comes up on a background check,” he said. One woman wanted to get a job helping elderly people, he recalled. “This was holding her back.”
Sometimes as few as two show up at the drop-in clinic. Other times, 14 to 15 walk in. Each one has a story. And each one finds the process of trying to seal their records – which entails considerable paperwork as well as a pro se court appearance – complex and overwhelming. “It’s nice to be able to do this,” Boyum said.
The Juvenile Record Sealing Clinic was the first in the state, Yeannakis said. Over the years, he and Ambrose have helped other cities and law schools start one; such clinics now exist in Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Skagit County. Seattle’s clinic is run by law students from the University of Washington and Seattle University, with attorneys such as Pang and Boyum supervising their work.
Pang said he enjoys volunteering at the clinic not only because he’s helping clients but also because he’s working with law students. So much of law school, he said, focuses on abstract legal theory, not the mechanics of legal work – the need to file, for instance, three nearly duplicative documents, as is the case when sealing records. “I think it’s very important in our field to help out the law students,” he said. “When you’re in law school, you don’t learn why you have to file three of almost the same documents. This clinic is a chance for them to see what working as a lawyer is really like.”
Pictured above, from left, are Kari Boyum, Ryan Gray and Matthew Pang. Photo: Leslie Brown. This article originally ran in DPD's Employee Newsletter.
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