Local public defender office to expand; understaffed for years, state director says

With the expected signature of Gov. Mike Parson, staffing is planned to grow markedly in the Area 32 Missouri State Public Defender office in Jackson.

“Our offices (statewide) are historically understaffed,” said Mary Fox, state MSPD director based in Columbia, Missouri. “The staff complement was put in place in the 1990s and the number has remained pretty static, while cases requiring a public defender have significantly increased.”

Legislation to increase the number of court-appointed defenders in Missouri by 53 lawyers was passed by both houses of the General Assembly on May 7.

All lawmakers locally voted “yes” — Jamie Burger, Rick Francis, Barry Hovis and Wayne Wallingford in the House and Holly Rehder in the Senate.

The local public defender’s office will hire three additional lawyers to handle caseloads for Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Mississippi, Perry and Scott counties.

Additionally, Stoddard County cases, previously handled out of Area 35 in Kennett, Missouri, will move to the Jackson office along with three lawyers — meaning the total number of lawyers working out of Jackson will increase by a third, from 12 to 18.

Renovation

The Cape Girardeau County Commission on Monday gave its unanimous approval to the expansion of the Area 32 office at 2360 N. High St.

The building’s landlord, once the bill is signed, will make renovations to accommodate the added staff.

Other than the state paying for telephone service, the individual counties are on the hook for the cost of office space and utilities. A new five-year lease beginning in January 2022 has been drafted for the Jackson office with each of the participating six counties picking up a proportional share of the cost based on the 2010 census count of population.

Cape Girardeau County, as the largest of the six, will pay nearly 40% of the total rent and will see its yearly expenditure rise from the current $23,565 to $31,800.

Scott County will pay nearly 21% of the lease and Stoddard County nearly 16%. The remaining lease cost will come in assigned contributions from Bollinger, Mississippi and Perry counties.

“We’re required to do this by state statute,” said First District Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Paul Koeper, who referred to the increased cost as “an unfunded mandate.”

Rationale

Fox said there is a clear reason why public defender caseloads have increased.

“While I can’t give you exact figures, I would say that the introduction of methamphetamine to Missouri certainly was a big factor in the increase in criminal cases over the years,” she said.

Fox also said moving attorneys from Kennett to Jackson helps with a recruitment problem.

“We’ve had great difficulty over the years staffing the Kennett office. Cape County is a more urban area and it is easier to attract attorneys to the Cape area,” she said. “After speaking to district director Leslie Hazel from Cape County and Rance Butler, the district defender from Kennett, we agreed it would make sense to transfer the two defenders from Kennett to Jackson, where they already live, and then to add one additional attorney to handle the Stoddard caseload.”

The Area 35 office in Kennett, with five public defenders, will continue to handle cases in Dunklin County.