Defender's Office Research Articles

Desjudicialização da saúde e diálogos interinstitucionais em Minas Gerais: a análise do Acordo de Cooperação Técnica para a gestão dos medicamentos Ranibizumabe e Aflibercept

Objective: to understand the judicialization of health in Brazil and analyze, from the perspective of health de-judicialization, the Technical Cooperation Agreement signed on December 2, 2021, between the State Health Departmentof Minas Gerais , the State Attorney General's Office of Minas Gerais, and the State Public Defender's Office of Minas Gerais for the management of the medications Ranibizumab and Aflibercept. Method: a narrative review of the literature on the judicialization of health and an exploratory study based on documentary analysis of the antecedents of the Technical Cooperation Agreement were carried out. Results and discussions: Self-composition and consensual resolution of conflicts by the Public Administration has broad legal support and, in the current legal and administrative scenario, is the most effective and efficient means of realizing the underlying public interest, notably the right to health, promoting its dejudicialization. This scenario points to the potential for new solutions, including the implementation of interinstitutional dialogues, such as the Technical Cooperation Agreement studied, which is expected to serve as the embryo for a permanent trend in the management of the judicialization of health within the scope of State Health Departmentof Minas Gerais. Final considerations: ahe cooperation agreement studied has great potential for the dejudicialization of actions with requests for ophthalmological medicines, in addition to others whose incorporations are proposed within it. It also promotes synergistic and convergent action by actors involved in judicialization. The perspective is that, from this milestone, these legal actions will decrease and patients will begin to be served through the United Health System administrative supply route. Submission: 03/19/24| Review: 08/16/24| Approval: 09/01/24

Brazilian Public Defender's office and the barriers of the second wave of the access to justice: testing correlations between the annual federal budget and the free assistance from 2014-2023.

A variação no valor do orçamento anual aprovado para a Defensoria Pública no Brasil influencia na variação do número de pessoas atendidas por esse órgão? A partir da Pesquisa Nacional da Defensoria Pública (PNDP), a literatura argumenta que, para garantir o acesso igualitário à Justiça, a Defensoria Pública depende do repasse de recursos orçamentários suficientes para o adequado desempenho de suas funções constitucionais. Este artigo analisa, por meio de pesquisa empírica-quantitativa descritiva, o acesso à justiça por meio da Defensoria Pública da União entre os anos de 2014-2023. Conclui-se que os orçamentos das unidades da Defensoria Pública brasileira são profundamente desproporcionais e não guardam o mínimo de igualdade com outras instituições com as quais possui paridade constitucional.

Judicialización sanitaria y acción de la Defensoría Pública en un caso de insumo no incorporado: la demanda de Cannabidiol en la Defensoría Pública Federal de Salvador/Ba em la última década

Objective: To evaluate the performance of the Federal Public Defender's Office and the effectiveness of the juridification of health, as an instrument to guarantee access to the right, in the case of a non-standardized input (Cannabidiol), in the Salvador/Bahia unit. Methodology: a descriptive study with application of retrospective longitudinal method was carried out on the number of Cannabidiol claims that have reached the unit since the index case admitted in Brazil in 2014, its annual evolution and destination in the institution and in the court, until 2023. Results and discussion: there was a systematic growth in the number of cases, which doubled annually, especially from 2018 onwards, except in 2021. The percentage of judicialized lawsuits was about 59%, and, among those, more than half obtained a favorable decision in some instance, reaching 76% from the merit sentences. The time between the arrival of the applicant, the gathering of documents and the filing of the action was, on average, 2.4 months, and the average interval between the filing of the initial petition and the intimation of the anticipation decision, in the cases where it was granted, was 2 months. On the other hand, the interval between the intimation of the anticipatory decision and the effective compliance oscillated around 9.2 months, only being obtained through judicial blocking in almost 70% of the cases. Conclusion: it was found that the defense was swift, as soon as the necessary documents were gathered, as well as the injunctions granted. On the other hand, the time of compliance after the concession decision showed an alarmingly long interval, resulting in a new form of ineffectiveness of the social right to health, which the judicialization aimed precisely to combat. Submission: 11/30/23| Review: 01/29/24| Approval: 01/30/24

Custos vulnerabilis, fundamental rights and culture: reflections in light of Marc galanter´s critical ideas

This article attempts to investigate the public defender office’s intervention in Brazilian’s civil litigation as custos vulnerabilis. It will analyze whether this legal construction effectively has a redistributive impact on law and changes the status quo or would it be a symbolic commitment. It uses the argumentative dialectical approach method; the structuralism procedure method and the sociological interpretation method. As a research hypothesis, it considers that public defender office’s intervention as a “vulnerable’s guardian” is legitimated by the protection of vulnerable group’s fundamental rights. The objectives of this essay are: i) to analyze the public defender’s intervention as custos vulnerabilis; ii) to examine the civil litigation neutrality discourse and the limitations to law’s transformation by Marc Galanter; iii) associating law and culture, to investigate whether the referred intervention modality has the aptitude to promote social change, analyzing its theoretical basis of legitimation. The conclusions show that: i) the public defender office’s intervention as custos vulnerabilis is interpreted from art. 134 of Brazilian’s Constitution, to promote fundamental human rights; ii) the recognition of this interventional modality by jurisprudence reveals the Brazilian society’s cultural transformation and of process itself; iii) this interventional modality’s consolidation may contribute to a paradigm shift in Brazilian civil process, making it more inclusive and fairer.

Interpretive and Interpersonal Challenges of Digital Evidence for Public Defenders

This study uses an ethnography of a large public defender office in the U.S. to argue that the rise of digital evidence is a communication phenomenon that brings new evidentiary interpretation and interpersonal challenges for public defenders and their low socioeconomic status clients. The study’s theoretical framework draws on communication privacy management theory, context collapse, sensemaking, and sensegiving. Findings holistically show that public defenders now have to engage in collaborative interpretive work with clients to unpack the meaning and context of digital evidence. Content penned by young clients and communications related to domestic violence cases are especially challenging to interpret. Findings also show that access to highly personal data is a double-edged sword for attorney-client interactions in that it can cause feelings of discomfort for attorneys while also holding the potential to humanize clients.

A Case for Social Workers as Investigators in Public Defender Offices.

Social workers play a critical role in modern public defender offices, whether performing mitigation work for pretrial negotiations and sentencing hearings or helping clients to secure access to basic human needs. Although social workers have held in-house positions in public defender offices since at least the 1970s, their service is largely limited to mitigation practice and traditional social work. This article raises an opportunity for social workers to broaden their capacity within public defense by pursuing investigator positions. A case is made for interested social workers to draw upon their education, training, and experience to showcase the alignment between their talents and the requisite skills and performance required of investigative work. Evidence is offered to support the notion that social workers bring skills and a social justice orientation to investigative work that can provide for fresh insight and innovation in investigation and defense strategy. The value brought to investigation by social workers throughout a legal defense is specified, as are considerations for applying and interviewing for investigator positions as social workers.

Perspectives on Parkinson’s Disease Medications: A Qualitative Study of People with Parkinson’s Disease (P14-11.015)

<h3>Objective:</h3> To explore the thoughts, beliefs, and expectations of people with Parkinson’s disease (PwPD) regarding their Parkinson’s disease (PD) medications. <h3>Background:</h3> Few studies investigate the factors that inform the impact of PD medications on individuals’ lives. This qualitative study aims to better understand PwPD’s experiences with and perspectives on their medications. <h3>Design/Methods:</h3> PwPD treated with PD medications at five movement disorder clinics in five states across the United States were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews (SSIs) and focus groups (FGs). Interview and moderator guides developed to explore participants’ experiences with PD medication were utilized. Inclusion criteria consisted of confirmed PD diagnosis, history of taking medications for PD, aged ≥18 years, and ability to consent and participate. SSI and FG transcripts were analyzed via grounded theory methodology to identify primary themes and subthemes. <h3>Results:</h3> Twenty PwPD (8 females/12 males; aged 48–80 years) participated in one-hour telephone SSIs and 32 (16 females/16 males; aged 57–86 years) participated in one-hour online FGs. Four primary themes (subthemes in parentheses) emerged regarding medications for PD: (1) effectiveness (effectiveness uncertainty, expectation realignment), (2) side effects (tolerating side effects, discerning side effects vs disease progression), (3) timing challenges (dosage timing, off-times), and (4) desires (more options, therapy advancement). Participants were uncertain whether they were experiencing the full benefits of their medications and unsure of whether their symptoms were medication side effects or signs of disease progression. High dosing frequency is especially taxing on PwPD, and participants expressed a desire for longer-lasting medications and more therapeutic options. <h3>Conclusions:</h3> This study identified four core dimensions of PD medications from the perspective of PwPD. Results indicate the need for enhanced communication between providers and patients regarding PD medication to reduce uncertainties around symptom burden, and continued efforts to develop and advance PD treatments. <b>Disclosure:</b> Dr. Richards has received research support from Cerevel Therapeutics. Dr. Brown has received personal compensation in the range of $10,000-$49,999 for serving as a Consultant for Taiho. Dr. Brown has received personal compensation in the range of $0-$499 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The institution of Dr. Brown has received research support from National Comprehensive Cancer Network/Pfizer. The institution of Dr. Brown has received research support from American Society of Clinical Oncology/Pfizer. The institution of Dr. Brown has received research support from Cerevel Therapeutics . Dr. Johnsrud has received personal compensation in the range of $10,000-$49,999 for serving as a Consultant for Atlas Clarity. Dr. Johnsrud has stock in NuCara Management Group. The institution of Dr. Johnsrud has received research support from Cerevel Therapeutics. Dr. Arcona has received personal compensation for serving as an employee of Cerevel. Dr. Arcona has stock in Cerevel. Dr. Sasane has nothing to disclose. The institution of Dr. Armstrong has received research support from National Institute of Aging. The institution of Dr. Armstrong has received research support from Florida Department of Health. The institution of Dr. Armstrong has received research support from Lewy Body Dementia Association. Dr. Armstrong has received research support from Parkinson Foundation. Dr. Armstrong has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a DSMB member with Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium. Dr. Armstrong has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a DSMB member with Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study. Dr. Armstrong has a non-compensated relationship as a Member, Scientific Advisory Council with Lewy Body Dementia Association that is relevant to AAN interests or activities. Dr. Feuerstein has nothing to disclose. Dr. Shill has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Amneal Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Shill has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Neurocrine Biosciences. Dr. Shill has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Biogen. Dr. Shill has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Abbive. Dr. Talman has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as an Expert Witness for Oregon Federal Public Defenders Office. Dr. Talman has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a panelist with HDSA. Dr. Mantri has received personal compensation in the range of $0-$499 for serving as a Consultant for Deep Brain Innovations, LLC. Dr. Mantri has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Grey Matter Technology. The institution of Dr. Mantri has received research support from The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson Research.

Process mapping: A case study in the contract sector of the Public Defender's office in the state of Amazonas

Process mapping: A case study in the contract sector of the Public Defender's office in the state of Amazonas

Alone in the Lone Star State: How a Lack of Centralized Public Defender Offices Fails Rural Indigent Defendants

The criminal justice system is stacked against indigent defendants. The disadvantages indigent defendants face are exacerbated when mixed with the unique qualities of rural America. For instance, rural court-assigned attorneys are often picked through ad hoc systems by the very judges these attorneys must appear in front of, creating a judicial conflict of interest. The financial realities of rural public defense work often force counsel to manage a private practice while also balancing court-appointed cases. To the extent integral resources like investigators or experts are present in rural spaces, they are seldom used. This Note highlights the way Texas organizes its public defense system as an example of how the unique properties of rural America interact with our criminal justice system to create substandard representation. As a solution, this Note proposes that rural counties should pool together resources to create centralized, regional public defender offices that serve multiple counties. Centralized offices, rather than private attorneys selected by judges to represent indigent defendants on an ad hoc basis, would sever judicial conflicts of interest; they would allow defenders to focus on their indigent clients rather than be forced to manage a separate practice; and they would have the ability to retain in-house services like investigators. Because establishing these centralized offices requires increased state funding and political will, this Note concludes by analyzing impact litigation lawsuits in several states that successfully improved rural public defense.

Expanded Criminal Defense Lawyering

This review collects and critiques the academic literature on criminal defense lawyering, with an emphasis on empirical work. Research on criminal defense attorneys in the United States has traditionally emphasized scarcity of resources: too many people facing criminal charges who are “too poor to pay” for counsel and not enough funding to pay for the constitutionally mandated lawyers. Scholars have focused on the capacity of different delivery systems, such as public defender offices, to change the ultimate outcomes in criminal cases within their tight budgetary constraints. Over the decades, however, theoretical understandings of the defense attorney's work have expanded to include client interests outside the criminal courtroom, reaching the broader social conditions connected to the alleged criminal act. Researchers have responded by asking a broader range of questions about the effectiveness of defense counsel outside the courtroom and by using improved data to study the effectiveness of lawyers at discrete procedural stages.

Indigent Defense Participation by Private Contractors and the Role of Compensation as an Incentive

The Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of the right to counsel for individuals accused of a crime is critical to ensuring a fair and just legal system. Despite popular belief, many indigent clients are represented by private attorneys who contract with court systems rather than employees of public defender offices. Understanding the incentives that motivate private attorneys to participate in the public sector by accepting indigent defense court cases is critical to shaping state and local policy related to representation. Prior research on incentives suggests that private sector employees are largely incentivized by income, while public sector employees are driven by a wider range of values. Despite the increasing participation of private-sector contractors in public sector work, the literature has not expanded its examination to include these hybrid workers. This paper examines the intersection of private-sector employees and public services through the lens of indigent defense by examining whether attorneys who participate in indigent defense as contractors do so based on profit-seeking interests. Using data collected from a survey of indigent defense attorneys in the State of Michigan, this paper concludes that private-sector workers who contract with public organizations do so based on income motives. This motive is consistent with traditional motivating factors of private sector employees.

A Tale of Two Districts

Judicial districts do make a difference. They do in sentencing; and they do when it comes to a supervised release violation. This article examines the extent and unevenness. We compare and contrast sentences for supervised release violations in two judicial districts in the Ninth Circuit: Arizona and California Northern. Although in the same circuit, the two districts approach hand down dissimilar punishments. The article examines the differences across race and gender and type of offense. Across the board, sentences not only are more severe in Arizona than California Northern, they also skew higher for certain offenders and genders. A close scrutiny of the results reveals the variabilities that can vanish in broad data collections of national averages. In a dialogue format, two practitioners in the federal defender offices discuss the differences and offer explanations. Such differences result from distinct approaches to supervised release violations: punishment versus rehabilitation. The differences may also arise from types of cases, number of matters, and use of supervised release as a deterrence. The discussion illustrates the more severe sentences with a close scrutiny of the statistics. The conclusion is inescapable: the culture and practice of the district determines outcomes.

The digital divide in the US criminal justice system

The growing use of digital evidence from smartphones and social media has led to a digital divide in the US criminal justice system that advantages law enforcement and prosecutors while further increasing the vulnerability of poor people and people of color who rely on public legal assistance. Drawing on a year-long ethnographic study of one of the first digital forensics laboratories in a public defender office, I argue that digital inclusion in the form of better resources for public defenders is necessary for equitable and fair representation in today’s criminal justice system. Findings show that access to digital forensic technologies is an important equalizing tool that allows public defenders to (1) mount strong, data-driven cases; (2) create counter narratives that challenge depictions of marginalized defendants as dangerous; and (3) engage in nuanced storytelling to highlight the complexities of human relationships and life circumstances that shape cases.

Legal claims to obtain hip replacement surgery in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2016-2018

This study analyzed the court proceedings, health characteristics of the patients, and plaintiffs' characteristics in lawsuits for hip replacement surgery from public health services in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The data employed was from the Technical Support Center for the Judiciary of the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice (NAT-JUS) database, from January 2016 to December 2018. Data were analyzed according to tiers in the court system. There were 89 lawsuits filed for hip replacement surgery and most of them were tried in the Court of Justice of the State of Rio de Janeiro (TJRJ), with joint plaintiffs, represented by the Public Defender's Office. They had advance relief granted, and were ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, with no appeals filed. More than half of the cases were referred to NAT-JUS. The osteoarthritis group waited approximately seven months, while the emergency conditions group waited nearly two months from the date of filing to obtain the procedure. The lawsuits for hip replacement surgery showed similarities and differences in relation to other claims, object of others studies, which means that the strategies for their qualification. The study found that access to hip replacement surgery related to lawsuits in the Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS) in the State of Rio de Janeiro is jeopardized, with the claims considered as an indicator of unmet needs.

The autonomy of public defender's offices: a systematic comparison between Latin American countries

PurposeIn most Latin American countries, the provision of legal assistance to the vulnerable population is carried out by public defender's offices (PDOs), agencies composed of state-paid career lawyers. The aim of this paper is to explain the cross-country variation in regarding the autonomy levels of Latin American PDOs.Design/methodology/approachA scale to measure autonomy was built allowing access to the autonomy of sixteen different PDOs. Data were gathered through content analysis of the statutes that organize the PDOs and analyzed through qualitative comparative analysis (QCA).FindingsThe results demonstrate different levels of autonomy among Latin American PDOs. Furthermore, conditions related to institutional and social contexts, such as levels of income, human development, democracy, and the complexity of the political systems, presented sufficient relationships for high levels of autonomy.Research limitations/implicationsIt was not possible to interview representatives of the PDOs analyzed. This could help the interpretation of the legislation applied to PDOs, as well as the observation of regulations that may not have come to the knowledge of researchers. Thus, analyses were made according to what was observed in the legislation of each country. It is also noteworthy that this research covered only nationwide PDOs, not involving subnational PDOs. In addition, the data have only internal validity, and cannot be extrapolated to the population.Practical implicationsThe creation of a scale to measure the autonomy of public agencies stands out as an original comparative data set of PDOs covering a large amount of Latin American countries.Social implicationsThis study was able to characterize the institutional arrangements of sixteen national PDOs, allowing broad comparison between legal aid agencies for the vulnerable population in a region of the world that still suffers from high levels of poverty.Originality/valueThe article presents possible explanations on the variations of PDOs' level of autonomy, showing PDOs' idiosyncrasies, whose autonomy is influenced also by social context variables, in view of the nature of their mission. It should be noted that factors related to the social context are not widely considered by the literature on autonomy of public agencies.

Análise das demandas judiciais de idosos com diagnóstico de câncer no serviço público de saúde

Objetivo: caracterizar serviços e insumos demandados por pacientes diagnosticados com câncer, de 60 anos e mais, por meio de processos judiciais contra o Distrito Federal. Método: estudo transversal, análise documental de 94 processos de 2017. Resultados: Os demandantes do estudo eram, majoritariamente, do sexo masculino (59,6%), com média de idade de 71+7,6 anos. A maioria das demandas teve origem em serviços público, provenientes da Defensoria Pública (89,4%), solicitando medicamentos (36,2%), radioterapia (36,2%) e consultas (35,1%), com custo médio aproximado de R$ 43 mil. Conclusões: os pleitos surgiram da dificuldade de acesso em tempo oportuno a rede de atenção oncológica local.

Making Gideon Count? Public Defender Resources and Felony Case Outcomes for Black, White, and Latinx Individuals

Although Gideon v. Wainright has provided indigent defendants potentially facing prison time the right to counsel, commentators and scholars have documented that the public defense system is vastly underfunded and currently in crisis. However, research has rarely examined how public defender resources impact case outcomes, and the research that does exist has yet, to my knowledge, examine how these resources impact racial disparities in case outcomes. By merging data from the Census of Public Defender Offices to data from the State Court Processing Statistics, I begin to fill this gap. Results from multivariate regression analyses with state-year fixed effects provide mixed evidence. Regardless of race, higher public defender and support staff caseloads tend to be associated with worse case outcomes. In the case of pretrial detention, I find that high public defender and support staff caseloads exacerbate Black-White disparities. With respect to sentence length, I find evidence that high public defender caseloads exacerbate Latinx-White disparities and some evidence that they mitigate Black-White disparities. In sum, these results provide strong support for the view that the public defender funding crisis harms indigent defendants regardless of race and mixed evidence regarding its impact on racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

Negotiating with parents: Attorney practices in the juvenile plea bargain process.

Research on plea bargaining is increasing, yet much of this work examines how the process unfolds in adult court. Plea bargaining in juvenile court has several notable differences such as parental involvement. Including parents throughout the adjudicatory process is encouraged but ultimately left up to the attorney. Research has not explored whether attorneys include parents in plea bargain discussions with their clients. The present study examined parental involvement in the juvenile plea bargain process. We did not have any formal a priori hypotheses for this exploratory study. The first author conducted qualitative interviews with eighteen defense attorneys from the juvenile division of a public defender's office on the East Coast where we discussed their most recent case that resulted in a plea bargain. Parents were included in plea negotiations and hearings. Attorneys described seeking parental input because parents may be impacted by the terms of the plea and because the court often seeks parental approval. During hearings, parents offered input regarding their child's ability to plea, the disposition plan, and whether they support their child's decision to plead guilty. Pleas might impact parents, so it may be impractical to overlook their interests. However, parent and child interests may conflict, and parents often lack understanding of their children's rights and pleading generally. Therefore, attorneys must not only advocate for their clients, but also educate and manage parents' interests both inside and outside the courtroom. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Gaining Access to Justice: A Subnational Study of the Public Defender’s Office in Mexico

With the transition to democracy, Latin American countries have embarked on implementing judicial reforms to redesign justice-sector institutions and build up the rule of law in the region. Reform efforts included empowe¬ring the courts, granting political independence to the public prosecutor’s office, professionalizing the public defender offices and implementing the accusatory criminal system in justice-sector institutions. To what extent are the reforms tar¬geted at the public defender offices changing the way legal defense is provided? In this article, after discussing a theoretical framework that captures and opera¬tionalizes the concepts of a merit-based career system, an accusatory criminal justice system and effective legal representation, I examine the extent to which the changes of transitioning from an inquisitorial to an adversarial system and from a non-merit-based career system to a merit-based career system have affec¬ted the way legal counsel is provided at subnational public defender offices. To accomplish this, I provide both a de jure and de facto measures (indicators of reform implementation). To identify the de jure indicators, I consulted legal texts (constitutions and secondary laws), and to gauge how the de facto indi¬cators work, I relied on interviews with public defenders, reports and academic documents. I collected 50 interviews with public defense attorneys from three Mexican states: Baja California Sur, Jalisco and Nuevo León. Findings from these states suggest that as reform implementation advances, public defenders have more tools to offer legal representation; more specifically, they are better trained, in addition to having higher salaries, a lower caseload per defender and increased access to forensic services.

The Color of Justice

In this review of Sara Mayeux's Free Justice, I argue that one cannot tell a history of public defense without interrogating the political, social, and legal status of Black and other nonwhite people charged with crime. Racism and white supremacy played prominent roles in the development of the criminal legal system and impacted the creation, scope, and trajectory of modern indigent defense. By applying a critical race lens to the history of indigent defense and the development of the right to counsel, my hope is to provide additional insight into why public defense has struggled to deliver justice to the accused. I also use it as a tool to suggest alternative ways to advance justice for poor people ensnarled in the criminal legal system. Mayeux focuses her account on elite corporate lawyers during the Progressive Era, their philanthropic efforts, and the legal profession’s changing identity. Free Justice unearths the legal profession’s dramatic shift in attitude toward public defense over the course of the twentieth century. Elite lawyers initially viewed public defense as akin to communism or as the socialization of the private bar, but by midcentury they regarded public defenders as exemplars of democracy and “the American way of life.” This dramatic shift, according to Mayeux, enabled most indigent defense delivery models to transition away from elite lawyers’ benevolence and ad hoc services to state financed public defender offices, legal aid societies, and nonprofits. In Part I, I identify a central tenet of critical race theory and apply it to Free Justice’s utopian framework and Progressive Era notions of criminal conduct, charity, and the legal profession. In Part II, I examine the post-Gideon fallout in under-resourced Black communities, the growth of mass criminalization, and ineffective assistance of counsel jurisprudence through a critical race lens. I conclude the review with thoughts on a different method of delivering justice to indigent people facing criminal charges.