In 1972, the Kentucky Legislature established the Department of Public Advocacy (DPA), a statewide entity that oversees the delivery of indigent defense services in Kentucky's 120 counties. At its inception, the DPA was acknowledged by experts to be a model indigent defense program to be emulated across the nation by states grappling to provide the constitutionally protected right to counsel. Since those days, the DPA, faced with the constraints brought on by inadequate funding and burgeoning caseloads, has lost its preeminence in the field and is now working to reclaim its position at the forefront of quality indigent defense providers.

By statute, the state is responsible for funding indigent defense in Kentucky with the expectation that the counties would contribute local funds to augment the state appropriation. The Department of Public Advocacy meets its mandate to provide statewide administration of the appointment of counsel at trial in one of three ways:

1. Through staffed regional trial offices. As of May 1999, DPA had 21 regional public defender trial offices serving 71 of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
2. Through one-year contracts between DPA and private attorneys in 47 of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
3. In the urban counties of Jefferson (Louisville) and Fayette (Lexington) through yearly contracts between DPA and non-profit county public defender offices. Unlike most of the rest of the state, the two counties provide substantial funds to supplement state funds for the two offices.

1. The Law Operations Division (LOPS) provides administrative support for the statewide system. These duties include providing caseload data and analysis, fiscal information, technology, recruitment, personnel, payroll, education, grant oversight and development and criminal justice issues.

2. The Trial Division provides professional legal services to indigent defendants charged with criminal offenses or juvenile delinquency and status offenses in each county in the state at the trial level in circuit and district courts. It has six regional branches and a Capital Trial Branch.

3. The Post-Trial Division includes five branches: the Post-Conviction Branch which represents felons incarcerated in Kentucky prisons who are challenging some aspect of their conviction; the Appellate Branch, which represents persons on their initial appeal to Kentucky Appellate Courts; the Capital Appeals Branch, which represents persons on Kentucky’s Death Row on their initial appeal; the Capital Post-Conviction Branch, which represents persons on death penalty post-conviction reviews; and, the Juvenile Post-Dispositional Branch, which represents juveniles on appeal or those who are contesting the fact, duration or conditions of their confinement in residential treatment facilities.

4. The Protection and Advocacy Division is a federally funded independent division within DPA which protects and promotes the rights of Kentuckians with disabilities through legally based individual and systemic advocacy and education. This Division has not been a focus of the Blue Ribbon Group’s review.

The Department is assisted in its work by the Public Advocacy Commission, a twelve person body consisting of representatives from each of the three law schools, and members appointed by the Kentucky Supreme Court and the Governor. The Commission recommends candidates for the position of Public Advocate to the Governor, assists the Department in ensuring independence through public education about the purpose of the public advocacy system, adopts the annual budget for the Department, and provides general supervision of the Public Advocate.

Several efforts have been taken by DPA over the years to attempt to address its chronic under-funding problem. In the summer of 1991, DPA contacted the American Bar Association seeking the assistance of The Spangenberg Group to conduct a performance evaluation of the statewide public defender system. The Spangenberg Group is a nationally recognized criminal justice research and consulting firm specializing in the delivery of indigent defense services. Created in July 1985 and located in West Newton, Massachusetts, The Spangenberg Group has conducted research and provided technical assistance to justice organizations in every state in the nation. Since its inception, The Spangenberg Group has been under contract with the American Bar Association’s Bar Information Program (BIP), which provides support and technical assistance to individuals and organizations working to improve their jurisdictions’ indigent defense systems. As the ABA’s primary provider of technical assistance relating to indigent defense systems, The Spangenberg Group has worked with judges, bar associations, state and local governments, legislative bodies and public defender organizations throughout the country. Robert Spangenberg spent considerable time in 1991 visiting Kentucky under the auspices of BIP, and subsequently wrote a report which raised most of the major issues that still face DPA in 1999.

In 1993, the Governor of Kentucky created the Task Force on the Delivery and Funding of Quality Public Defender Services. Mr. Spangenberg was asked to work with that group and testified before the Task Force. Not surprisingly, the resulting Task Force Report highlighted many of the same problems Mr. Spangenberg identified during his previous trips. The efforts of the Task Force resulted in new legislation that provided DPA with the new alternative funding sources, a $52.50 DUI fee and a $40.00 administrative fee.

In the fall of 1997, Mr. Lewis contacted The Spangenberg Group once again to seek assistance in reviewing the operation of DPA and the budget plans Mr. Lewis had for the future. Mr. Spangenberg and his colleague Michael Schneider came to Kentucky in late 1997 to do another assessment of the system statewide and to review DPA’s plan for 1998-2000. This work concluded with yet another report by The Spangenberg Group repeating many of the problems that had by then become chronic and systemic.

One of the suggestions that The Spangenberg Group made which was enthusiastically shared by Mr. Lewis was the creation of a statewide blue ribbon commission in Kentucky to develop a plan for the 2000-2002 biennium. Mr. Spangenberg’s suggestion was that the time for study was over and the time for action had arrived. This view was based upon years of study in Kentucky that actually began in the winter of 1980 when Mr. Spangenberg, while at Abt Associates, performed an evaluation of "The Southeastern Kentucky Public Advocacy Regional Project."

Mr. Lewis and his staff picked up the ball in late 1998 and began to create what is now the "Kentucky Blue Ribbon Group on Improving Indigent Defense in the 21^st Century." The Blue Ribbon Group consists of more than 20 distinguished members representing all the branches of government, the bar and the community. (Membership of the group appears in Appendix A of this report). The Blue Ribbon Group has adopted the following mission statement:

The Blue Ribbon Group met on three occasions. The first meeting was held in Frankfort at the Kentucky Bar Association Headquarters on March 5, 1999. The second meeting was held in the same place on April 23, 1999, at which time the Blue Ribbon Group voted on a number of recommendations. The final meeting was held on May 25, 1999, and the Group endorsed this report and the recommendations contained in Chapter 5.

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