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The New Mexico Public Defender is a great criminal law firm with talented and knowledgeable employees showing supreme dedication to the profession. Episodes of injustice, however, lurk in the system, undermining their work.

Two district judges have found the “system” to be in “crisis.” Statewide, lawyers are sometimes not timely appointed to help the incarcerated. Attorneys sometimes “meet and plead” defendants, not sufficiently investigating the case, not having time to interview witnesses in preparation for trial or even to visit with the client.

One defender office does not have the attorneys necessary to represent defendants at the first court appearance, resulting in unnecessary pre-trial incarceration. There is often no help at the critical grand jury stage.

Dedicated rank and file employees leave the job they love because of overwork and inability to pay their bills.

Contract lawyers are woefully underpaid, as in TV’s “Better Call Saul,” receiving a few hundred dollars to work for many months on a serious felony case, a real-ife disincentive to effective counsel.

These situations do not occur because of lazy or incompetent public defenders but because of inadequate resources. Public defenders do great things, but they cannot do the impossible.

The Public Defender Commission, the policy body for indigent defense, reasonably requires that attorneys comply with minimal performance standards in every case. But this presents a problem – what is to be done when there’s too much to do and too little time?

Something’s got to give. There are only so many dollars, so many hours in a day and so many employees available to meet required standards. Someone – most notably poor clients – will get hurt when these limits collide. It would be best for this problem to be tackled now rather than waiting for the inevitable injustices to occur.

If the NMPD were the New Mexico Plumbing Department the state would hire qualified plumbers who use proper materials and who perform recognized plumbing methods to prevent leaks. They would not be required to perform two jobs for the price of one.

The New Mexico Public Defender also requires qualified employees who must work according to standards in every case. They are often asked, however, to “fix more leaks” than is possible.

Legislators are doing their best to divide the pie fairly and they choose their priorities rationally. So, if there is too little money for indigent defense because of low oil prices or political priorities that’s understandable. It is not acceptable, however, to not provide constitutionally adequate representation regardless of budgets. We will responsibly use every dollar afforded us but we can only fix so many leaks.

Looking forward, the benefits to the community of supporting an effective, dignified criminal defense system are great, but the detriments of not doing so are disastrous – to defendants, crime victims, taxpayers and the community at large, all of whom must pay the price if the criminal justice system fails.

Michael Stout is chairman of the New Mexico Public Defender Commission.