According to Amanda Hernández of Stateline.org,
Ashley, a 29-year-old mother of two who was up in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood, was charged with child abuse and neglect in September 2023 as part of a criminal case involving substance usage.
She lost contact with her younger daughter as a result of her arrest.
However, Ashley was paired with a professional advocate who took the time to learn about her and her case, rather than being sentenced to jail time. She finished two inpatient programs for substance abuse therapy. She began a one-year outpatient therapy program in April 2024.
She had reconnected with her now 2-year-old daughter by that June. Ashley’s criminal case was completely dropped in April 2025, a year after she started outpatient treatment, after she fulfilled all the conditions of her court-mandated plan. (Stateline consented to conceal Ashley’s entire identity in order to avoid any reprisals in the current dispute over her older child’s custody.)
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Ashley recounted feeling like a lost dog when she initially walked inside the courtroom. However, she found strength and support through a collaborative defense concept led by the national group Partners for Justice.
Two-year Los Angeles County client advocate Jaya Duckworth assisted Ashley in obtaining identification, completing and signing necessary paperwork, and establishing connections with outpatient treatment and therapy.
Ashley, a recent high school graduate with some college experience, intends to go back to school and keep up with her two-year-old. In addition, she is collaborating closely with her legal team to reclaim custody of her daughter, who is nine years old.
In an interview with Stateline, Ashley stated, “I don’t think I would have been reunited with my daughter without her help.” Now that my child is here, I feel I can go into that courtroom with confidence and keep trying.
Her story is representative of an increasing trend in public defense that acknowledges that lawyer advocacy is frequently insufficient on its own.
However, this change is taking place as the national tide is turning the other way, with numerous political figures reiterating demands to combat crime by enforcing stricter laws and stepping up police presence.
According to Alaina Bloodworth, executive director of the Black Public Defenders Association, there is a wealth of evidence indicating this strategy is ineffective. Bloodworth had previously worked for six years as a public defender in Louisiana. Emotions drive tough-on-crime policies. It isn’t supported or grounded on any kind of data.
For communities of color, it is undoubtedly ineffective, and it hasn’t worked for us either.
According to a 2019 study by the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Rand Corp., holistic defense—which incorporates social, legal, and community support—may improve clients’ long-term results in addition to reducing jail and prison time. Holistic representation decreased the chance of a prison sentence by 16% and the projected sentence length by 24%, according to a research that contrasted holistic and standard public defense models in New York City over a ten-year period. Additionally, it saved taxpayers an estimated $160 million in housing expenses for prisoners.
In some areas of the nation, this strategy has quietly gained traction and frequently produces outcomes that are hard to deny. Some public defenders and advocates are arguing that holistic support is not an add-on but rather an essential component of good legal representation as local governments balance public safety and other fiscal considerations.
According to Michael Halkias, the lead public defender for Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, a holistic defense gives the client the agency and autonomy they require to make their own decisions. And in the end, I believe it benefits people when they feel empowered to make choices when they are in a system that tells them they have no control.
Client advocates have been employed by the county office for almost a year.
The 1990s saw the rise of holistic defense, which combines resources and social support with legal counsel. The objective is to address the root causes of criminal conduct, including as poverty, substance abuse, and trauma, which might occasionally lead individuals to enter the legal system in the first place, rather than to condone or ignore it.
According to Bloodworth, meeting those fundamental requirements guarantees that they won’t reappear in the system. A team of experts representing someone is crucial to ensuring that individual receives the best representation since I am not trained in meeting social needs in the same way that social workers or client advocates are.
Partners for Justice, a nationwide charity that started operations in 2018, is one of the groups spearheading this change. By placing qualified client advocates in public defender offices, the group established a collaborative defense model in which they collaborate with lawyers as a cohesive, client-led defense team.
While some of the client advocates have first-hand experience from the criminal justice system, others are recent college graduates who commit to two-year fellowships with hopes of pursuing careers in law or public policy. Addressing the root causes and averting many of the most severe repercussions of criminal legal engagement are the team’s objectives.
As of right now, Partners for Justice has put advocates in 17 states and 25 public defense agencies. Through new collaborations with the Colorado State Public Defender and the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, the group broadened its scope earlier this year.
In order to put clients in direct contact with the assistance they require, many client advocates create their own networks of nearby service providers.
At times, it involves guiding a client through a strategy for their release from jail. At other instances, it’s just turning up with food or holding their hand in court.
Duckworth, the client advocate who worked with Ashley, the 29-year-old mother from California, stated that helping to restore the humanity and dignity that the system denies them is one of the most significant aspects of her work. The Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office employs over 20 advocates, including her.
By enabling them to concentrate on legal strategy instead of managing the intricate demands of numerous clients at once, the model relieves the strain on overburdened public defenders.
“We have a lot of cases,” said Jennifer Sellitti, a public defender in New Jersey. However, we are also beasts, so I’m going to handle everything on my own.
“Changing that mindset was one of the biggest challenges,” she said.
Telling lawyers, “We want you just to lawyer,” was the most difficult task, Sellitti told Stateline. But in all three of our pilot offices, that very, very soon became an amazing partnership.
According to Sellitti, since implementing the Partners for Justice client advocate program in three locations throughout Atlantic, Hudson, and Monmouth counties in March, the offices have facilitated clients’ access to treatment programs faster than they would have through more conventional channels like recovery court or probation.
Additionally, the collaborative defense concept fosters confidence between the defense team and its customers. According to some client advocates, defendants frequently believe that public defenders don’t give a damn about their cases. But many public defenders are stretched so thin that it s nearly impossible to give each case the attention it deserves.
Paul Boyd, a client advocate with the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender in Atlantic County, stated that we have been useful in helping to close that communication gap between the attorneys and their clients.
Boyd, who served time in prison, claimed that his experience helps him gain the trust of clients who can identify with his situation and, as a result, are more aware of the overwhelming caseloads their lawyers deal with. According to him, such relationship frequently increases a client’s willingness to work with their defense team.
Budget cuts in some states, though, could threaten the advocacy work.
A program that has helped dozens of defendants in the Multnomah County area of Oregon is now at risk of being cut from two of the county s major law firms that offer public defense services. The county faces a $15.5 million budgetshortfalldriven by a pandemic-era drop in property tax revenues.
Among those the program has supported in Portland is a 33-year-old resident and Alaska Native who has lived there for nearly a decade. The resident, who asked that their name not be used out of concerns for safety, was arrested last fall and charged under Measure 11, Oregon s mandatory-minimum sentencing law. A prison sentence loomed over them.
After spending nearly a month in county jail, they worked with client advocate Cierra Carlson on a release plan outlining their goals for substance use recovery, going over the resources they wanted to be connected to and naming other steps to keep out of the criminal legal system.
I was worried that I was going to fall through the cracks, that I was just going to be treated like a number, they said in an interview with Stateline.
But upon release, they entered a culturally specific substance use treatment center that serves people of color. They secured more stable housing, and with Carlson s help reactivated their food stamps and health insurance.
I feel way more seen than I have in the past, they said.
But Carlson s position could soon be eliminated.
Under Multnomah County s proposed budget, $621,261 in funding for client advocate or case manager positions at the Metropolitan Public Defender, a nonprofit law firm that contracts with the state to offer public defense services, and Multnomah Defenders Inc. would be eliminated cutting all six positions across the county. It s one of many potential cuts that county leaders are looking at to save money.
Two amendments have been proposed to keep the program, though. One would fully reinstate the $621,261 in funding, while the other would allocate about $415,000, likely resulting in the loss of one or two positions.
Carlson said she s worried about what might happen to her clients if the program were cut. I have seen the difference that it can make.
The proposed cuts come as Oregon s public defense system is in crisis.
More than 3,700 people charged with crimes across the state currently have no legal representation, according to the latest statedata. More than 1,700 others have missed their court dates after never being assigned an attorney and now face active arrest warrants.
Even if this program goes away temporarily, it s not something that we are going to back away from because it is so critical to our work and to the success and safety of our community, too, said Grant Hartley, the director of the Metropolitan Public Defender.
States Newsroom, 2025. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
