Publications
Contracted to Fail: How Flat-Fee Contracts Undermine the Right to Counsel in California
California was once the nation’s leader in public defense, home to the first ever public defender’s office, decades before Gideon v. Wainwright. Today, the state is in the midst of a public defense crisis and a main cause is the reliance on “flat-fee” contracts with for-profit private attorneys and firms, where lawyers are paid a set…
Read MoreGideon Turns 60: Advancing the Right to Counsel for Kids in Cuyahoga County
In “Gideon at Sixty: Advancing the Right to Counsel for Kids in Cuyahoga County,” Wren investigated juvenile defense in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Wren recommends that the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court appoint the public defender to represent all children facing delinquency charges, and that the public defender, rather than the court, determine when assigned counsel is needed.…
Read MoreGideon Turns 60: How the Cuyahoga County Jail Stifles the Right to Counsel
In “Gideon at Sixty: How the Cuyahoga County Jail Stifles the Right to Counsel,” Wren investigated the state of visitation at Cuyahoga County Jail. Wren recommends that the Cuyahoga County Jail bring back in-person visitation and cut off the prosecutor’s access to Securus’s surveillance. Both reforms would meaningfully improve the right to counsel for people who cannot afford…
Read MoreDOJ Slashes Programs That Stop Crime: The Trump Administration’s Attack on Evidence-Based Violence Prevention
Last week, the Trump Administration abruptly terminated hundreds of active DOJ grants that totaled more than $800 million and funded a wide range of programs, services, and research vital to protecting all Americans. These cuts included community violence intervention programs; services for victims of sex crimes and human trafficking; wellness for law enforcement; and safety…
Read MoreTrump’s Evergrowing Deportation Network
The Trump administration’s war on immigration and immigrants is escalating and expanding. Just this morning, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, alleging that she helped an undocumented person “evade arrest” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the courthouse. Within hours, protesters had gathered outside Milwaukee’s federal courthouse.…
Read MoreTrump’s Defiance of Court Orders
We have crossed the red line. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia is a Maryland resident mistakenly arrested by ICE and sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison camp, where he remains today. This week, the administration refused to comply. Despite…
Read MoreCreating the Conditions for Violence
To change things up, we are starting with good news. Over the last several months in Louisiana, Governor Jeff Landry spent significant political capital trying to ram through four constitutional amendments, which, amongst other things, would have created statewide “specialty courts”–a move that could have removed cases from local jurisdictions, mirroring efforts across the south…
Read MoreThe Shrinking Frontier: Attacks on the First Amendment
There was nothing normal about Trump’s remarks at the Department of Justice a week ago. Not the venue–most other presidents before Trump have deliberately maintained a firewall between the agency and the presidency. And certainly not the words themselves–an hour-long tirade that meandered through a list of the president’s personal grievances. At the top of…
Read MoreThe Increasing Use of Criminal Prosecutions to Suppress Dissent
The right to free speech and peaceful dissent is a cornerstone of American democracy, yet the Trump administration has launched an unprecedented assault on these fundamental freedoms. In just the past few weeks, we have seen alarming attempts to criminalize political opposition and silence voices of dissent. From “border czar” Tom Homan’s threats against Representative…
Read MoreCourts Under Fire, Judges on the Line: Right-Wing Attacks on the Judiciary
Starting with President Trump’s reelection last fall, we have witnessed an alarming escalation in rhetoric and action against the judicial branch at both the federal and state levels. From the White House to state legislatures, elected officials are challenging judicial authority in ways that, while not unprecedented in American history, threaten the very foundation of…
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