Every person awaiting trial has a constitutional right to a defense attorney. Yet in counties across Illinois, public defenders struggle with excessive caseloads that negatively impact their clients. The chronic underfunding of public defense has created a civil rights crisis in our courts. 

Illinois has not significantly changed its public defense structure since 1949. We are one of only seven states that doesn’t have any statewide oversight of public defense. In every county in Illinois, the prosecutor’s office gets more funding than the public defender. This most affects  rural and Black and Brown defendants who are most likely to be represented by the public defender.

On May 1st, join the Illinois Network for PretrialJustice for a listening session on the state of public defense in Illinois. Community members will have a chance to share their experiences with public defense and discuss opportunities to improve the quality of representation across Illinois. We will also hear from policy experts about the FAIR Act, which would create a statewide office of public defense in Illinois.

Dinner will be provided!