Criminal justice is not simply about incarceration or punishment. Criminal justice is about making sure that the scales of justice are evenly balanced, affording those with the least amount of resources access to fair, adequate and competent representation in court. A recognition of this long overdue need for improvement is what prompted Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans to lead the effort in creating the Office of Public Defense Services (OPDS).
“I’ve spent more than four decades of my life in public service for Detroit and Wayne County, and most of those years have been in law enforcement, both on the streets and at the administrative level,” said Executive Evans. “One of my greatest concerns has been that too many poor, Black and Brown people charged with crimes are simply falling the through the cracks of our judicial system. They can’t afford adequate representation, and those lawyers paid to represent them by the system we have in place are egregiously underpaid and overworked. OPDS is designed to fix that problem.”
The decision to hire Robin Dillard-Russaw to be in charge of OPDS was a major part of the judicial system course correction. Dillard-Russaw brings a wealth of relevant experience to her new job. A skilled attorney, mediator and counselor, she holds both a Master’s Degree in Dispute Resolution from Wayne State University, and a JD from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
As a solo practitioner, Dillard-Russaw practiced both criminal defense and probate law, and was a certified mediator. She also served as an Assistant Attorney General with the Michigan Department of Attorney General, as an Assistant Prosecutor in both Wayne and Oakland Counties, and as a Magistrate and Deputy Court Administrator for the 46th District Court.
“Launching an entirely new department is a mammoth undertaking, but it’s also exciting. In some ways I feel like everything I’ve done up to now has been leading to this,” said Dillard-Russaw. “What Executive Evans is doing with the creation of the Office of Public Defense Services, as well as the new Criminal Justice Center, is raising the bar and setting a new standard for criminal justice that has implications for reform nationwide.”
For years, Wayne County – like so many other urban communities – struggled with the numerous difficulties and devastating consequences posed by an overburdened court system. In this system, the rights of poor people charged with committing a crime are far more likely to be trampled and overrun. If a defendant is poor and Black or brown, then the situation becomes noticeably worse.
National standards state that a lawyer handling felony cases should not be responsible for more than a total of 150 felony cases in a given year, and nothing else. In 2017, the State Defenders Office (SDO) attorneys collectively handled 3,469 newly appointed cases, plus any cases appointed in previous years that had not concluded. The 16 SDO attorneys each had on average 217 new felony cases (or 145% of the national standard). And the SDO did not have any social workers, investigators, paralegals, or interns on staff to aid the attorneys in conducting their work.
The OPDS was created to manage and support indigent defense system reform in Wayne County, which handles 15,000 assignments of counsel in felony cases. The new public defender office, Neighborhood Defender Service – Detroit, handles 25% of the felony caseload, with the other 75% going to private assigned counsel. One of the first goals of the OPDS is to encourage the use of investigators and experts when defending cases, because this resource can often provide more equal access to justice for the indigent. When fully operative, the OPDS will manage the process from assignment of counsel and litigation support to payment of fees.
Creation of the OPDS as a Wayne County Department, with procurement authority, is currently being considered by the Wayne County Commission. Corporation Counsel and the Executive’s Office have been heavily involved in providing direction and support for this endeavor.