Robert Perkins and Wesley Caines: Holistic defense can change lives

Everyone agrees that the right to a lawyer, even if you cannot afford one, is a necessary condition of justice. Yet funding for public defense lawyers in Allegheny County has never been enough to protect this right. Local defense spending is roughly a third of the national average — putting us on par with Mississippi, the state that ranks dead last in the country in funding.

This is a shame, because an effective public defense system not only leads to fairer case outcomes, but also protects public safety and saves taxpayer money.

To see what is achievable by investing in public defense, look at The Bronx Defenders (BxD) in New York. Founded 27 years ago by a group of lawyers and social workers, BxD revolutionized public defense through its innovative holistic defense model. Dozens of defender offices around the country have since adopted holistic defense — many of them trained by BxD.

In a traditional defense model (which continues to be the standard in Allegheny County), a lawyer is defending a “case” rather than a person. The goal is to remove the immediate threat of legal jeopardy, not address any larger issue in a person’s life that led to their justice system involvement in the first place — such as housing insecurity, substance use or untreated mental health issues.

The holistic defense model is different. It trains lawyers to identify how a person’s situation can make them vulnerable to legal consequences beyond their case, and create strategies to prevent them from happening.

To understand the value of holistic defense, consider a Bronx client from a few years ago. A woman named Ms. D. sought placement in a shelter with her children. However, each time Ms. D. applied, something was missing from the convoluted application, leading to stress and exhaustion. While in line at the shelter one day, Ms. D’s children got into a fight. Overwhelmed, she did something she never did before — slap her son. They immediately reconciled, but moments later she was in handcuffs and charged with assaulting her child.

Ms. D’s arrest changed everything. Her troubles went beyond simply defending a criminal charge. Her children were separated from her, placed in foster care and eventually hospitalized due to the resulting trauma. Meanwhile, Ms. D. lost access to medication she took to treat a chronic illness. For someone who was still awaiting trial, and not convicted of anything, that serious health risk — along with the thousands of taxpayer dollars it cost to house her and her children — was wildly out of proportion with any sensible balance of justice and public safety.

Enter The Bronx Defenders’ team. They helped free Ms. D from jail. And they didn’t stop there. They simultaneously negotiated a deal that brought Ms. D’s children home and connected them to social services. They also helped Ms. D secure housing in a family shelter. After the family was reunited and achieved some stability, BxD succeeded in getting the criminal charge dismissed.

This outcome was possible because a basic insight of holistic defense is that people accused of crimes are people, not simply cases to be processed. They are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. They are part of our community, and should never be judged solely by the worst thing that ever happened in their lives.

And a related insight is this: Unless we address the underlying causes and conditions that lead to system involvement in the first place, we will never achieve true public safety.

A multi-year research study revealed that people represented by the Bronx Defenders achieved better outcomes than people represented by another public defense organization that employed a traditional defense model. The study also demonstrated that Holistic Defense saved taxpayer money through reduced jail costs — to the tune of $165 million.

Equally important, the study concluded that while BxD clients were more likely to be released back into the community, they were no more likely to be rearrested after release than those incarcerated for longer periods. In other words, holistic defense dramatically reduced the jail population with no harm to public safety.

So what’s not to like? Every year in Allegheny County, more than 10,000 people who cannot afford a lawyer are charged with crimes (most of them low-level, non-violent offenses). As Ms. D.’s story shows, a mere arrest can have disastrous consequences for the accused and their family. But most accused people in Allegheny County do not have access to a holistic defense, which means that if Ms. D. lived in Pittsburgh instead of the Bronx, her family’s story would have likely ended differently.

If Allegheny County adopted a holistic defense model, less people would languish in jail, which is incredibly expensive. The county would then have more resources to invest in services we know create long-term and sustainable public safety, like access to affordable housing and medical care.

Earlier this year, County Executive Sara Innamorato announced the All In Allegheny Plan. It calls for an impressive array of new policies to create safer communities and ensure justice for all. Providing public defenders with the resources they need to deliver holistic services should be part of that plan.

Now is the time to bring holistic defense to Allegheny County. By doing so, we can ensure our most vulnerable residents receive the comprehensive support they need to navigate the legal system and build better lives.

Rob Perkins is executive director of Allegheny Lawyers Initiative. Wesley Caines is interim executive director of The Bronx Defenders.