| In 1993, Congress began to take a closer look at the rising costs associated with the Federal Defender Services. The investigation of costs occurred at a time when the mix of Federal cases were changing and the fully implemented Federal sentencing guidelines appeared to be imposing additional burdens on court-appointed attorneys. Survey work done by the U.S. GAO revealed, however, that a relatively small number of cases were responsible for most of the increase in costs, that Federal capital prosecutions had a disproportionate impact on costs, and the studies on tcosts, the Federal courts began to implement new methods for managing and controlling costs of defender services. This paper reviews and assesses the methods that arose to organize Federal Defender Services in a more cost-effective manner. These include: Expanding the use of Fe4deral Public Defender and Community Defender Offices; up-front budgeting for cases; maintaing continuity of representation for capital defendants in state courts; and reinstituting Death Penalty Resource Centers. While the jury is still out on the impacts of these initiatives, this paper draws out the implications of them for the quality of justice and containment of costs. |
Updated 05/20/2006