MADISON, Wis. — The wait behind bars has reached nearly a year for one inmate named in a class action lawsuit against Wisconsin alleging unconstitutional wait times for people in need of public defenders.
For others, it’s months — not just for them, but many inmates around them.
Criminal defense attorneys John Birdsall and Hank Schultz (retired) have spent years putting together the class action lawsuit filed Tuesday evening against the Evers administration and public defender board in Wisconsin, but say the problem has spanned several political administrations of both parties.
“That as been true with Republican administrations, Democratic administrations, good economic times, bad economic times,” Birdsall said. “It’s always been the same: that this is basically ignored by the political powers that be in Wisconsin. Now it’s time for them to actually build a system that works for everybody.”
The lawsuit came after their petition to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to increase wages for public defenders and private attorneys helping offload cases was only partially successful in 2018. (Evers signed off on a budget from the legislature in 2020 that included increase public defender salaries to $70 an hour, which still falls far below criminal defense attorney rates.)
The suit names Evers and the entire public defender board, but does not sue the legislature due to a legal doctrine that prevents them from civil suits like this one, the attorneys explained. The lawsuit is seeking to force the state to either assign public defenders within 14 days or dismiss the case with prejudice — meaning it can’t be brought against the individual again.
“Our lag time, if you want to call it that, stuns other people,” Schultz said.
“In that time, witnesses get lost. Surveillance footage gets written over. Memories fade. People disappear,” Birdsall added. “It makes it impossible to defend a case in many instances, and if there’s a victim in the case — that person doesn’t get any closure.”
RELATED: ‘This is unsustainable’: Wisconsin public defender caseloads in crisis
A different group in 2019 filed a similar class action lawsuit in federal court which was ultimately dismissed. That lawsuit included filing errors and was poorly prepared, Birdsall said, leading to its dismissal.
Watch more from Birdsall and Schultz’s interview above. The 418-page civil complaint can be read here.
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