Missing: Public Defenders in Washington State

From Pennsylvania to Washington, where, the Olympian reports, legal aid for indigent juvenile offenders is similarly absent. Citing the 2007 “Status Report on Public Defense in Washington State,” the paper notes that “seventeen counties never or only sometimes make public defense attorneys available to children and teenagers during their first appearance in juvenile court. These small- to medium-size counties…handle about 30 percent of the 22,000 cases a year involving juveniles making their initial appearance in court on allegations that they committed a crime.”

(Hat tip to Skelly at Arbitrary and Capricious for the link.)

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