Parity funding for the Prince William County Public Defender Office is key to a fair and equitable system of restorative justice. Low pay and heavy workloads make it difficult to recruit and retain high quality attorneys for the Public Defender’s Office. Currently lawyers and staff of the PWC Public Defenders Office are paid less for the same work as the PWC Commonwealth Attorney’s. In September PW VOICE sent the below letter to Honorable Ann B. Wheeler, Chair-At-Large PW County Board of Supervisors, advocating an increase in funding to bring salary compensation for PWC PD staff to parity with the PWC Commonwealth Attorney’s office in order to make the PD office a top-flight office in the state.
Background reading: Supervisors reject public defenders’ pleas for more funding.
September 29, 2022
Dear Chair Wheeler:
Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Enhancement (VOICE) urges the Prince William County Board of Supervisors to increase the FY 2024 Budget supplement it provides to the County’s Office of the Public Defender (OPD). The $350,000 or 15 percent salary supplement the County previously provided is now inadequate and does not support the recruitment and retention of lawyers and administrative staff needed to serve Prince William County residents. VOICE strongly supports the need for funding equity between the OPD and the Commonwealth Attorney. This means that the County would supplement the OPD at the same percentage as the County supplements the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, which is 46%. This would raise the total County contribution to $1.1 million.
Despite the nationwide and statewide trend toward funding parity between prosecutors and defenders, in Prince William a considerable disparity still exists. Prince William’s public defenders make much less than local Commonwealth’s Attorneys, and are in fact the lowest-paid public defenders of any in Washington, DC or its Northern Virginia suburbs, including state public defenders in Alexandria (pay parity), Loudoun, Arlington, and Fairfax, the Public Defender Service of Washington, DC , and federal defenders in Alexandria, and Washington, DC.
The OPD has been instrumental in providing legal representation for Prince William County residents as they enter the criminal justice system. For the first time, for many, financial means is no longer a barrier to receiving adequate legal representation. OPD advocates for the most vulnerable constituents in our community, those experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges and people living on the margins–whose only remedy was incarceration.
Since its inception, OPD has contributed to a significant decrease in unnecessary pretrial detention, by mandating bond review within 24 hours of appointment, collaborated with the Office of Criminal Justice Services, and helped lead changes in the Commonwealth’s policy regarding cash bail. The OPD provides counsel to detained defendants at their first appearance before a judge, an initiative proven to reduce pretrial detention for most defendants.
The success of the first year of OPD is demonstrated by the 3,000 Prince William County residents—and those residing in cities within the county— seeking legal representation from OPD. The FY 2023 Budget states that Commonwealth Attorney caseloads exceed best practices of 45 assigned cases per attorney. OPD caseloads were 243 assigned cases per attorney. Based on this information alone, OPD does not have adequate resources to do the job. Our residents need a Public Defender that is fully functioning with adequate resources. When OPD experiences a 20 percent attrition in its first year with a loss of six attorneys in thirteen months due to an inability to sustain an exhaustive workload combined with low pay, Prince William County residents are not being served. Prince William pays its public defenders far less than its prosecutors.
- Prince William’s Senior (supervising) Public Defenders, receive between $99,644 and $104,140 annually. The Commonwealth’s Deputy (supervising) Attorneys receive salaries between $140,980 and $186,271.
- An Assistant Public Defender II (no supervisory responsibility) receives $85,311 annually. A similarly situated Senior Assistant Attorney with the Commonwealth’s Attorney receives between $105,000 and $132,500 annually.
- An Assistant Prince William Public Defender received between $75,467 and $77,037. An assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney receives between $80,000 and $97,798.
We firmly believe that both the Commonwealth Attorney’s office and the OPD serve critical and equally important roles in our justice system. We are in no way advocating for a reduction in the funding to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office, merely that these entities be supported equally.
In closing, VOICE requests that the Board of Supervisors increase the FY2024 Budget supplemental to 46% to achieve funding parity and ensure the quality of legal representation we provide our residents.
Sincerely Yours on behalf of VOICE Prince William County,
Rev. Dr. Keith Savage, First Baptist Church Manassas
Rev. Michael Sessoms, Little Union Baptist Church