In general, states across the country organize indigent defense systems either at the state level or at the county/regional level. If organized at the state level, the state will have some degree of responsibility and oversight as to the delivery of indigent defense services thereby creating some degree of uniformity across the state. A county/regional based indigent defense system delegates the responsibility of organizing and operating an indigent defense system to an individual county or group of counties.71 The Illinois indigent defense system does not fit neatly
into either of these categories. Rather, the structure of the indigent defense system is based on the county’s size and population; funding for the indigent defense system comes from the County treasury, with the salary of the Chief Public Defender coming from both the State and County treasury.72
There are three basic types of juvenile indigent defense systems in Illinois:
(1) A full-time Chief Public Defender with full time attorneys (i.e. assistant public defenders);
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(2) A full-time Chief Public Defender with (a) full or part-time attorneys (i.e. Assistant Public Defenders) and/or (b) full or part-time contract attorneys who may refer to themselves as assistant public defenders; and,
(3) A part-time Chief Public Defender and possibly part/full-time contract attorneys. Although there is no set formula for appointing contract attorneys, it appears that these attorneys need either the approval of the local County Board or the Chief Judge before they are given contracts to handle juvenile delinquency cases.73
Counties in Illinois with populations over 35,000 must have an Office of the Public Defender. In counties with populations over 35,000 but under 1,000,000, the judges of the circuit court of the circuit where the county is located appoint a qualified person to the position of Public Defender.74 In counties over 1,000,000,75 the President of the county board, with the advice and
consent of the board, appoints the Public Defender. In counties with populations under 35,000 (over 50% of the counties in Illinois), the county board, by resolution, may create the Office of the Public Defender.76 The majority of these smaller counties have at least a part-time Public
Defender.77
Public defenders in counties with a population under 1,000,000 have the power to appoint assistants that the judges deem necessary for the proper discharge of the duties of the office.78
The Public Defender in counties with a population over 1,000,000 appoints assistant Public Defenders. The judges’ approval is unnecessary for the appointment of assistants in these counties.79 Counties with populations under 35,000 utilize part-time contract defenders or
assigned counsel who are often referred to as assistant public defenders.80 The compensation
for the assistants in these smaller counties is fixed by the County Board and paid from the County Treasury.81
Since 2002, the State treasury has been required to pay 66 2/3% of the chief public defender’s annual salary.82 If the chief public defender is employed full-time, his or her salary must be at
least 90% of that county’s state’s attorney’s annual salary.83 Although this rule went into effect
on July 1, 2002, no state funding was provided until the current appropriations bill (P.A. 094- 0798), which went into effect on July 1, 2006. Through this appropriations bill, funding was made available for the State’s share of county public defenders’ salaries. This new funding gives full-time public defenders an opportunity to receive an increase in salary, as many are paid below the 90-100% range of their county’s state’s attorney’s salary.84
County boards are responsible for providing office space for the public defender and for paying for travel and other expenses incurred in the defense of cases. Counties with a population of
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less than 500,000 must have all expenses approved by the circuit court before seeking funds from the County.85
Attorneys appointed by the court to represent indigent children in juvenile court may be compensated by a reasonable rate set by a local rule, but the rate cannot be less than $75 per hour for in court work and $50 per hour for out-of-court work.86 The statute sets the maximum
amount of $750 if the case is a misdemeanor; and if the client is charged with more than one felony, the attorney can receive up to $5,000 in fees.87 Although the statute is not specific to
juvenile clients it references indigent parties thereby making this law applicable to attorneys appointed to represent indigent children in juvenile court.
The Illinois Assessment team recruited David Olson, an experienced researcher and academic with substantial experience in researching funding mechanisms for legal representation of youth involved with the juvenile justice system,88 to analyze the data from the annual county
financial reports submitted to the Illinois Comptroller’s Office by each individual county in this study. Based on his review of the data, Mr. Olson found that expenditures for the State’s Attorneys office exceeded those of the Public Defender’s Office in all 14 counties. On average the expenditures from each of the county’s State’s Attorney’s Office exceeded those of the Public Defender’s Office by a ratio of 2.6:1, meaning that for every dollar spent on public defense, 2.6 dollars were spent on prosecution. This inequality is reflected in attorney salaries, as well as in litigation support, such as investigators, experts, and staff administrators.
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