title:  GOP Leadership At Fault For Predicted Collapse Of Public Defense System In This State
text: As Addicting Info reported here, the citizens of Louisiana are facing the harsh consequences of Republican trickle-down economics.As the state stands on the brink of economic disaster, LA residents could see disastrous results in the coming months, as hospitals and universities are shuttered, the disabled lose access to vital services, and the social safety net is gutted.In the midst of all the, the American Civil Liberties Union is sounding an even more dire warning.The state of Louisiana incarcerates more people than any other place in the world. Without drastic intervention, however, the citizens of LA are about to lose access to the fundamental right to legal representation.That s because Jindal s budget cuts decimated the state s system of public defense.According to ACLU attorney Brandon Buskey, the state s public defense system is so short of funding that 33 of the state s 42 districts will be shuttered over the next year, leaving the poor without access to legal representation.In a statement to The Guardian on March 4, 2016, Buskey said, The system is on course to collapse by next summer   we will have no public defense system in any sense of the word. We are talking about the wholesale destruction of a public function. According to Buskey, LA citizens are already experiencing the brutal impact of Jindal s failure to fund the public defense system. In metropolitan areas, such as New Orleans, public defenders are unable to take on new cases, leaving citizens who cannot afford a private attorney with no access to legal representation.The result is that potentially innocent people are trapped behind bars, with no way out.Buckley explained, In Orleans, we already have dozens of people held in jail for weeks on end without conviction and with no way of getting themselves out. We are literally trapping people in jail with no way out. LA public defender, James Dixon, told The Guardian that the state s failure to provide for public defense will cause extreme harm to juveniles, saying, We will no longer be able adequately to represent the kids in this state. If a child is charged with burglary or theft, they are going to go unrepresented, and that scares me. As The Guardian reports here, The funding meltdown also threatens to aggravate the existing inequalities in Louisiana s criminal justice system, by creating a two-tier service in which wealthier citizens can employ private lawyers while poor Louisianans are left to their own devices. Dixon pointed out,  This is an absolute injustice   that the poor will sit in jail without any representation just because they have no money. The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that, In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. What is happening in LA today is not only immoral and inhumane, it s also a violation of the United States Constitution, a document which republicans claim to be deeply devoted to.As a result of Jindal s irresponsible handling of the state s budget, innocent citizens could be forced to spend months behind bars after being accused of a crime they did not commit.At the same time, dangerous criminals, guilty of violent offenses, are likely to see their cases thrown out, due to the state s failure to uphold the Constitutional rights of the accused.Thanks to Jindal, who used the state s budget to conduct an experiment in GOP trickle-down economic theory, the state of Louisiana now faces a $1.6 billion budget shortfall.A new budget, proposed by the state s recently-elected democratic Governor, Jon Bel Edwards, and approved by the state legislature, attempts to correct the budget shortfall, but in doing so, leaves the public defense system virtually unfunded. The new budget would slash funding for public defense by 62 percent, reducing the amount of money allocated from $33m to under $13m.The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the state s accused. The suit attacks what the ACLU calls the state s  chronic underfunding of its public defender system. Image from Wikimedia Commons