You may have heard of Miranda Rights, more particularly this line,”You have the right to an attorney, if you do not have one, one will be provided for you.” This iconic line portrayed in just about every cop show or movie is very real. Public defenders are lawyers that are provided to juveniles who simply don’t have the means to afford a lawyer. They are paid to defend a multitude of people at one time, case after case. Unfortunately, a good chunk of those who go to jail are those who commit felonies to survive, meaning they are already at a disadvantage, getting a good lawyer should not be one of them. This gives an already underfunded program of public defenders an overwhelming amount of work.

In 2015 “The Washington Post” wrote an article called “I’m a Public Defender. It’s impossible for me to do a good job for my clients.” This blunt title already portrays the problem with our legal system and though this article may have been written 5 years ago. Yes, FIVE years ago! It is still relevant, for no action has been taken to better our system. This article illustrates the difficulties of the small program of public defenders in New Orleans. “To avoid layoffs, the entire staff will see the equivalent of four unpaid weeks per year in furloughs, increased caseloads and a hiring freeze,” This was a quote from the article about how the government chose to deal with the department after state-wide budget cuts. As you can see there is already enough evidence to prove that public defenders are overlooked, but there’s more

Upon looking up public defenders in Dallas, the local office has a total of one star. When the staff is underpaid and overloaded, it’s almost impossible to do a good job, resulting in the suing of certain defenders. In January of 2018 “The Dallas Observer” wrote an article about the absurd amount of poor people in jail because they couldn’t pay for a good lawyer or bail.  A federal lawsuit was filed claiming that the legal system targets poor people. Setting bail at an impossible amount for low income makers. This sheds light on the fact that besides lawyers the poor people of our country have so many disadvantages, let’s not make lawyers one of them.

For so long people have been saying to kids, “Be a lawyer, be a doctor. You’ll make good money.” But what people don’t realize is that the lawyers that make money work for firms, and the ones that are important, no longer get the attention or the funding that they need. I encourage all my readers to PLEASE bring this problem to the attention of adults, or any influential people. The poor people of our country should not continue to be neglected.

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