Cali Contract Defender Problem

In a scathing report about the county's public defender services, the outgoing Lake County Grand Jury has alleged the contractor providing the services is guilty of numerous contract violations and failure to follow guidelines, and has failed to offer adequate defense services to client inmates."

Among the complaints are that IRA does not provide one-on-one meetings in office settings with their attorneys and that "public defenders do not interview clients approximately 90 percent of the time."

Ok--I don't care how overworked you are--you gotta meet with clients. This is about bad lawyering and the perverse incentive structures of some of these contract systems.