Pennsylvania’s public defense crisis is a constitutional crisis

The constitutional right to counsel is one of the cornerstones of American democracy. But a constitutional right without adequate funding is merely a promise on paper. 

After years of chronic underfunding, the Defender Association of Philadelphia has been forced to make painful staffing reductions and reduce services that thousands of Pennsylvanians rely upon every year. 

The recent service reductions in Philadelphia should serve as a warning to the commonwealth: if the largest public defender office in Pennsylvania is reducing staffing to critical court programs — despite years of operational improvements, grant funding, and careful financial stewardship — the problem is structural underinvestment. 

These cuts are the predictable consequence of a system that has failed to invest in one of its most basic constitutional obligations. 

This is not simply Philadelphia’s problem.

It is Pennsylvania’s.

While public attention mainly focuses on police, prosecutors, and prisons, public defenders are equally essential to a functioning justice system. An effective public defense system strengthens public safety. 

Defenders help identify people who need treatment rather than incarceration, reduce unnecessary pretrial detention, negotiate resolutions that hold people accountable while promoting rehabilitation, and ensure court proceedings move efficiently. 

Every part of the justice system functions better when public defenders have the resources to do their jobs well.

Pennsylvania remains an outlier nationally when it comes to funding public defense. For decades, it was one of the only states that did not provide recurring indigent defense funding, forcing counties to shoulder nearly the entire cost of this constitutional mandate. 

Although the commonwealth has finally begun investing in public defense, the current statewide appropriation of just $7.5 million is nowhere near enough to meet the need.

While local governments in New York and New Jersey still carry significant fiscal responsibilities for public defense, they still invest more than Pennsylvania. Neighboring states like  Delaware, Maryland and Massachusetts assume primary responsibility for funding statewide public defense systems. 

These states invest tens or hundreds of millions of dollars annually to ensure constitutional representation, regardless of where someone lives. 

Pennsylvania’s fractional investment creates a patchwork system, where justice depends largely on local resources instead of constitutional guarantees. In our Commonwealth, the quality of representation — and ultimately, access to justice — can vary dramatically depending on zip code.

That is not what the Constitution promises.

Pennsylvania has already acknowledged that indigent defense is a statewide responsibility by appropriating state funds for the first time. 

Gov. Josh Shapiro and the General Assembly should move the state toward a funding model that reflects making an investment in public defense a priority. 

The commonwealth should move toward a funding model that reflects the true cost of providing effective representation in all 67 counties — not one that leaves local governments to shoulder nearly the entire burden.

Public defense is not a discretionary government program. It is a constitutional mandate. 

We would never expect police departments, prosecutors’ offices, or the courts to fulfill their responsibilities without adequate funding. We should not expect public defenders to do so either.

The Defender Association of Philadelphia’s decision to reduce some services is more than a local budget story. It is a warning that Pennsylvania’s constitutional promise is becoming increasingly difficult to keep. 

The question is not whether we can afford to invest in public defense. The question is whether we can afford not to.

A justice system is measured not only by how it prosecutes crime, but by how faithfully it protects the rights guaranteed to every person. 

Pennsylvania has an opportunity to demonstrate that those rights are more than words on paper.

 

Keisha Hudson is the Chief Defender at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which represents about 75% of the youth and adults charged with crimes in the city. She has more than 20 years of experience providing legal counsel to Pennsylvania’s most economically vulnerable citizens.