In 2022, Multnomah County dismissed 280 cases because of a shortage of public defenders to represent indigent people.

The Office of Public Defense Services (OPDS) has been the subject of multiple audits and a lawsuit in recent years because of its failure to provide adequate representation to those charged with a crime who can't afford an attorney.

As of Nov. 29, Oregon has 72 people charged with a crime who remain in custody and unrepresented. The state has 582 people on pre-trial release who are unrepresented.

It's a crisis state Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clackamas, says she had tried to tackle in 2022 by encouraging more attorneys to join the workforce through a student loan forgiveness program (HB 4007).

"Basically, it was $25,000 for 12 months of service for anyone who the Oregon Bar described as a public defender," she said.

The bill called for the program to be administered by the Oregon Bar and would have paid up to $200,000 in student loan debt for public defenders with a three-year service agreement.

While some student loan forgiveness programs exist for 503(c) public defenders or public defenders working full time for the state, the program does not cover contract employees, which OPDS employs in large numbers.

Bynum said the bill ran into snags over funding.

"I had an opportunity to speak with one of our Ways and Means co-chairs and she indicated that the pot of money that the chairs were dealing with, we were taking half of it, we had requested $25 million, they gave us zero," she said. "We also had a bill in our judicial branch and that was not funded either, so there was, I would say, a lack of interest in funding our judicial system."

She says that lack of interest exacerbated the shortage.

"At this point we are in crisis mode. We are letting people who have been accused of crimes off, and we are not giving victims their day in court," she said.

According to OPDS, public defenders awarded full-time contracts with the agency are paid about $200,000 a year, which also needs to cover overhead expenses such as paralegals, accounting, office supplies, rent, medical, and practice insurance.

Tara Herivel, a public defender who contracts with OPDS, said her compensation from the department breaks down to about $105 an hour, and she said about half of that is take-home pay. She noted that when you factor in tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, the income is not livable.

"I went to law school 21 to 22 years ago. My law school debt I've paid it off, and I've never worked for a larger firm or a medium-sized firm. I've done court-appointed work for the vast majority of time practicing as an attorney," she said. "I don't know how I would have done that with today's law school tuition."

She said federally contracted defense attorneys make on average $158 an hour.

"I think most people who are not wealthy or not in a situation where somebody else can bring in the cash, and you can do the karma, I think it chases out many, many people because it's just not feasible," she said. "The costs of law school have skyrocketed in a very short amount of time."

Bynum said she is looking to bring the bill back this year and would also like to look at measures that would increase parity between prosecutors and public defenders. When asked why she feels it would make it through in a year where a recession is predicted, Bynum said she believes there is an appetite for it this time around.

"Public safety is very important to Oregonians. They told us that in the elections, they have told us that in town halls," she said. "From my perspective, denying a victim their day in court because we can't figure out smarter ways to spend our money and create safer communities, that is not an excuse I am willing to go home with."