The Effect of Public Defender and Support Staff Caseloads on Incarceration Outcomes for Felony Defendants

Abstract

Objective: Although scholars have suggested that the lack of resources available to public defenders—and the associated high caseloads—hinders case outcomes for defendants, this has rarely been studied empirically. We hypothesized that smaller public defender and support staff caseloads would be associated with lower levels of pretrial detention, use of incarceration at final disposition, and length of incarceration sentences. Method: We linked county-level data on public defender and support staff caseloads from the 2007 Census of Public Defender Offices to data on individual felony defendant sentencing outcomes in large urban counties from the 2006 and 2009 State Court Processing Statistics. The sample included more than 5,000 felony defendants in 11 large urban counties in Arizona, California, New York, and Ohio. To explore associations, we used multivariate statistical models with state–year fixed effects. Results: Results suggest that felony defendants in counties with higher public defender and support staff caseloads are more likely to be detained pretrial and that felony defendants in counties with smaller support staff caseloads receive shorter incarceration sentences. Conclusions: Reducing caseloads is an important potential target for criminal justice reform. These efforts should not only prioritize attorney caseloads, but also support staff caseloads.