Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia
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The Public Defender Service (PDS) for the District of Columbia provides defense on a court-appointed basis for criminal (trial and appellate) and delinquency cases in which the defendants and respondents are indigent adults and juveniles. Its Mental Health Division provides representation to persons facing involuntary civil commitment based on allegations that the person is a danger to self or others as a result of mental illness. Its parole division represents parolees charged with violating parole and facing revocation before the United States Parole Commission. PDS also provides other legal-related services in DC.
The organization began in 1960 when the United States Congress established the Legal Aid Agency for the District of Columbia (LAA) under the District of Columbia Legal Aid Agency Act for the purpose of representing people who could not afford an attorney in criminal, juvenile, and mental health proceedings. The Bar Association of the District of Columbia’s Board of Directors devoted itself in 1955 to promoting the creation of a legal aid entity that would provide “competent and conscientious legal assistance” in a manner that would be “an inspiring example for other communities,” issuing its “Report of the Commission on Legal Aid of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia” in 1958. Then-Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia E. Barrett Prettyman, using the report, led a group of lawyers who went to the United States Congress and advocated for the establishment of an office that would focus on more serious criminal cases, juvenile delinquency cases, and mental health cases. LAA would break with past practice by being entirely government-funded and would be completely independent from the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government.
In 1963, the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Gideon v. Wainwright recognized the constitutional right to counsel in criminal cases for people unable to afford their own attorneys in felony matters. Shortly thereafter, LAA leadership crafted the 1970 statute that established the current District of Columbia Public Defender Service (PDS), broadened the mandate to include the Appointment of Counsel Program (now the Defender Services Office) and the Offender Rehabilitation Division (now the Office of Rehabilitation and Development), and secured the apolitical role of the PDS Board of Trustees. PDS’s mandate was to provide representation for up to sixty percent of the persons who are annually determined to be financially unable to obtain adequate representation. Those not represented by PDS are represented by private attorneys compensated through Criminal Justice Act (CJA). In 1974, the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) labelled PDS as an “exemplary project” and model for other jurisdictions.
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