Just like last year, Oregon is searching for a public defense leader, though this time around the system for people accused of crimes who can’t afford a lawyer is even worse off than before.
For most of the past year, the state has continued to charge people with crimes, some horrific, others less so. Yet, day after day, Oregon continues to come up short for those needing an attorney, a basic requirement of the Constitution. The most recent leader of Oregon’s Office of Public Defense Services, the state agency responsible for indigent defense, was fired in August.
The number of defendants whose rights are being violated continues to grow — 808 as of Wednesday, including three dozen in custody, according to the Oregon Judicial Department.
Despite overwhelming challenges, it seems there is no shortage of people willing to step up as the next executive director.
“I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to the many people who actually applied for the position,” Per Ramfjord, chair of the Public Defense Services Commission, said during a September 28 meeting. “I was really gratified to see the quality of the people who applied.”
During executive sessions this week, the Commission has interviewed two finalists, Jessica Kampfe, the executive director of Multnomah Defenders Inc., a public defense nonprofit in Portland; and Craig Prins, the Inspector General of the Oregon Department of Corrections and former prosecutor in Multnomah County as well as director of the Criminal Justice Commission.
The post was most recently held by Stephen Singer, a brash — and at times offensive — Harvard Law graduate. Singer was fired in August after a series of dramatic public meetings that included Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters repeatedly asking commissioners to remove him. Walters appoints the Commissioners.
On Tuesday, practically on the eve of the Commission naming its new director, Singer filed a lawsuit against the state of Oregon and the Commission, arguing he was dismissed for calling out the state’s unconstitutional public defense system, in violation of the state’s whistleblower protection laws. Singer is seeking $2.4 million in damages. Neither the Judiciary nor the Department of Justice, which represents the state in court, cared to comment.
It’s against this background, presumably, that Prins or Kampfe will attempt to fix an agency pushed past the point of crisis that no one has been able to stabilize.
In many ways, the two finalists complement one another, though they come from very different professional backgrounds.
Prins brings state government experience, something some commissioners believe is lacking in the struggling public defense system. But his background as a prosecutor and in the state’s prison system has soured others in the public defense community.
Kampfe, by contrast, is a longtime public defender. Since 2006, she’s either practiced or led public defense nonprofits in Washington, Marion and Multnomah counties.
The most pressing issue for the new executive director will be to get attorneys for people who don’t have them.
“It is a direct result of the lack of investment that has gotten us here, so we have to lay in the bed that we’ve made,” Commissioner Jennifer Parrish-Taylor noted during a meeting on September 28. “That requires not just the providers being responsible, but it also means the Legislature has a part to play in this, it means the broader judicial system has a part to play in this and that we waste time blaming each other about who was responsible and that we need to just get it done, take our lumps and keep it moving.”