RAPID: Measuring the Effect of Defense Counsel Funding: A Natural Experiment in Louisiana

虽然有广泛的共识，贫困的辩护律师是至关重要的刑事司法系统的正常运作，有相对较少的了解资源的效果提供辩护的过程和刑事司法系统的结果。 该项目将利用路易斯安那州的金融危机，以更好地了解贫困的防御系统的生产功能。 从2015年1月到2016年6月，路易斯安那州42个司法区中的25个的公设辩护人系统预计将滚动破产，并将通过限制向青少年和刑事案件中的贫困被告提供服务来平衡预算。 各地区在程度、时间和具体的贫困国防服务限制方面将有很大的差异。 该项目将定量评估这些限制对三个较大地区的辩护工作和案件结果的影响。 将对主要司法利益攸关方进行访谈，以更深入地了解量化结果，并评估因地区太小而无法进行量化分析的限制措施的影响。

While there is broad agreement that indigent defense counsel is vital to the proper functioning of the criminal justice system, there is relatively little understanding of the effect resources have on the process of providing defense and on criminal justice system outcomes. This project will take advantage of a financial crisis in Louisiana to better understand the production function of indigent defense systems. From January 2015 through June 2016 the public defender systems in 25 of Louisiana's 42 judicial districts are expected to fall into insolvency on a rolling basis, and will balance their budgets by restricting services delivered to indigent defendants in juvenile and criminal cases. There will be substantial variation across districts in the extent, timing, and specific indigent defense service restrictions imposed. This project will quantitatively assess the impact of these restrictions on both defense effort and case outcomes in three of the larger districts. Interviews from key judicial stakeholders will be done to provide a deeper understanding of the quantitative results, as well as to assess the impacts of restrictions in districts too small to analyze quantitatively.