Featured: A California bill aims to improve public defense funding

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%.”