In The Media

In the last several weeks, proponents of Proposition 3 — Texas’ proposed constitutional amendment that seeks to undermine the Texan right to pretrial liberty — have pointed to the case of Devan Jordon as proof positive that their amendment should pass. Unfortunately, almost everything about this argument is misleading, and the failures that occurred in the Jordon case had nothing to do with money bail.

In response to the Wren Collective’s report condemning the lack of in-person visitation since 2020, the Cuyahoga County jail has reversed its policy. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: “For the first time since the start of the pandemic five years ago, persons held in the Cuyahoga County jail will be able to speak face-to-face with their loved ones.”

It is now crystal clear that most people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have no criminal conviction. According to a Cato Institute analysis, 65% of people taken into custody have no criminal conviction and 93% have no violent conviction. These calculations are consistent with the horror stories we see daily, especially in California, where masked agents acting as kidnappers yank people from their jobs or immigration hearings not based on any danger but to meet a quota.

The Wren Collective’s report and research on California’s privatization of public defense through flat-fee contracts was cited in an op-ed in The Fresno Bee. “The numbers are striking: Eight of the 10 counties with the highest incarceration rates use flat-fee contracts exclusively, as do all of the counties in the top five. Seventy percent of counties that exclusively use flat-fee systems have seen a rise in incarceration over the last 10 years — in sharp contrast to the rest of the state. California, as a whole, spends 70-80% more on prosecution than public defense, but in flat-fee counties that disparity is 159%.”

“I’ll plead guilty today just to get released today.”

Dennis James Brown, II, spoke these desperate words to a judge after three weeks inside of a Northampton, Pennsylvania jail cell. When police arrested Dennis for driving without proof of insurance, he expected a judge would immediately release him. Dennis actually had insurance, he just misplaced the paperwork. All he needed was an attorney to clear things up. But Dennis couldn’t afford an attorney, and he was charged in a county that couldn’t afford to hire enough public defenders to handle all of its criminal cases.

Public defenders in California are seeking $120 million over three years for indigent defense. According to letters to lawmakers, this money is needed in part to deal with a flood of new cases under Proposition 36.

At a recent press briefing hosted by The Wren Collective, a panel of public defenders, policy experts, and legislators gathered to address the structural failures that have left tens of thousands of Californians—particularly low-income Black and Brown residents—without meaningful legal representation. The briefing painted a stark picture of a state that champions fairness in theory while allowing injustice to fester in practice.

Today, Hunter sat with Josh Occhiogrosso-Schwartz, a Principal at the Wren Collective, to discuss their recent report on flat rate Public Defender contracts in California.

KQED interviewed Josh Schwartz for its evening news program on how California’s use of flat-fee contracts for public defense creates an inherent conflict of interest and contributes to mass incarceration.

California’s “first guidelines and toolkit for contract and panel public defender programs” was released by the Office of the California State Public Defender last month, announced the Wren Collective.

The purpose of these tools is to ensure universally consistent and high-quality legal representation in criminal courts for all California citizens, regardless of location in the state, according to Wren Collective.