Requesting a study of Philadelphia's indigent defense delivery system. To date, Philadelphia has never conducted a comprehensive, professional study to determine which type of conflict counsel indigent defense delivery system best meets the needs of the City’s criminal, delinquency and dependency court systems. It is prudent for the policymakers of Philadelphia to decide for themselves the appropriate model for delivering conflict services, rather than having something imposed on it through costly litigation. It is necessary to establish how Philadelphia measures in meeting the American Bar Association Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System. We cannot fix a system if we do not know where it’s broken.
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To date, Philadelphia has never conducted a comprehensive, professional study to determine which type of conflict counsel indigent defense delivery system best meets the needs of the City’s criminal, delinquency and dependency court systems. As a result, the Mayor is moving forward to privatization without a view of the system as a whole, without knowing it’s strengths or weaknesses and without evidence that this model is the most effective route for Philadelphia. Pennsylvania is one of only two states in the entire country that does not financially contribute to the legal representation of the indigent. As a result, Philadelphia is forced to grapple the issue on their own trying to balance cost effectiveness and effective representation.
We are requesting that a comprehensive study be performed by the Sixth Amendment Center. Mr. David Carroll was invited to testify at a Philadelphia City Council hearing in February to discuss many of the issues with Philadelphia’s indigent defense delivery system. Mr. Carroll offered very insightful information and advice on what makes for an effective indigent defense delivery system. When the office of Councilman O’Brien reached out to him to get more insight on specific models that could work in Philadelphia, he was very forthright. He stated that he could not offer an opinion on the best, most effective model for Philadelphia because no comprehensive study of the current system had ever been performed.
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It is our goal that Philadelphia will have an objective assessment of the current system that establishes a blueprint that will allow policy makers (City council and the Mayor) the ability to move forward and provide the most effective indigent defense delivery system.
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Providers selected for consideration (previously 'Selected Providers' field):
Any proposal files shown below are under File Attachments
Selected Provider 1: Sixth Amendment Center
Bid: 20696.50
Proposal file: Philadelphia Proposed Work Plan (May 2014 Review Draft).pdf
Chosen Provider: Sixth Amendment Center