Recruiting Rural Public Defenders: Practical Solutions for Combatting Criminal Legal Deserts

Across the nation’s rural legal deserts, there is a dire shortage of public defense providers. In some places, rural defenders labor under excessive workloads. Elsewhere, arrested people languish in jail without a lawyer to defend them. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this special webinar, the Deason Center team provides actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners to recruit rural public defenders. Join us to learn about pipeline programs, financial incentives, and new practice structures that can green our public defense deserts. 0:00 Lessons from other fields 2:11 Overview of solutions 2:30 Creating pipeline programs 13:03 Established pipeline program models 16:45 Resource for more pipeline strategies 17:20 Discussion on pipeline programs 26:50 Reducing Barriers 31:06 Solutions to existing barriers 37:44 Legislative proposals to reduce barriers 38:30 Resource for reducing barriers 41:00 Discussion over reducing barriers 47:01 Build practice structures 50:44 Established Models on practice structures 53:42 Discussion on practice structures 1:04:30 Final Remarks