When you enter the lobby of the Orleans Public Defender's Office,
expect a bit of a wait, because receptionist Chastity Tillman will
likely be busy on the phone.
"The jail calls. We get them every second," Tillman says.
Jailed
suspects call to get their court dates and to see a lawyer. But for
those accused of the most serious of crimes, there will be no visit from
an attorney; no help in negotiating a bond; no investigation into their
alleged offense. Public defenders say they don't have the resources to
handle the city's indigent caseload after a million-dollar budget
shortfall.
So they are turning away some suspects who can't afford to pay for their own legal representation.
“The staff are not in control of the facility,” Susan McCampbell,
who is overseeing a federally supervised jail reform effort, told U.S.
District Judge Lance Africk.
“We had been very hopeful that when the new jail opened there would a
decrease in the level of inmate-inmate violence and uses of force (by
deputies) in the facility,” McCampbell said. “I’m here to tell you that
has not happened.”
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