The head of the Oregon Public Defense Commission unveiled a plan Monday to reduce the number of Oregonians who have been charged with a crime but do not have access to an attorney.
Both the U.S. and Oregon Constitutions require the state to pay for attorneys for those who cannot afford one. But for years, Oregon has not met that constitutional obligation.
Ken Sanchagrin is the interim leader of the Oregon Public Defense Commission.
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At the end of May, there were 119 people who were in jail who did not have an attorney representing them. There were nearly 4,400 people who needed an attorney but did not have one.
“It’s no secret the crisis has been getting progressively worse over time,” Ken Sanchagrin, the interim director of the agency, told reporters Monday.
But, he said, the crisis is largely driven by six counties — Coos, Douglas, Jackson, Marion, Multnomah and Washington — with a disproportionate share of the unrepresented individuals.
Sanchagrin’s proposal is detailed in a 38-page memo to the governor. His proposal is wide-ranging. It suggests identifying a pool of attorneys throughout the state who could take on extra cases and establishing diversion programs so people can bypass court. He also calls for working closely with law schools and tapping newly graduated lawyers for help.
For example, in Marion County, the state’s public defense commission teamed up with the district attorney to create RESTORE Court, which allows certain offenders with substance abuse issues to enter probation with treatment options and bypass court.
Sanchagrin’s plan also proposes building on the current team of state attorneys who he described as a “nimble strike team” that could be deployed to counties that have a need. That is already happening in some areas, Sanchagrin wrote in a letter to Gov. Tina Kotek, but his plan builds on the idea. For example, in November, the public defense commission sent one of its Salem-based lawyers to Coos County for a year.
The Oregonian/OregonLive first reported Sanchagrin’s plan.
In April, Kotek fired Jessica Kampfe, the former head of the Oregon Public Defense Commission. The Oregon Public Defense Commission is the agency responsible for contracting with all the state’s public defenders, from the nonprofit public defenders to the attorneys to those who take cases on an hourly basis. The commission itself has also undergone large transformations in recent times; it was recently moved from being part of the judicial branch to the executive branch and is now overseen by the governor.
When the governor announced Sanchagrin as the interim head of the agency, she also asked him to come up with a plan and create a timeline for “when the unrepresented crisis in Oregon will end.”
Sanchagrin said he could not offer a firm timeline but said that his plan is a 12-month proposal.
The Oregon Legislature is currently considering budget and policy changes to the public defense commission.
Sen. Anthony Broadman, D-Bend, who chairs the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Public Safety, praised Sanchagrin’s proposal, saying it “puts us on a path to ensure Oregonians are safe and the accused have adequate representation.”
