In January 2023, the Commission on Public Defense Services (PDS) received its first public defender office. That office, the Rural Defender Unit, traveled throughout the state to provide indigent legal services to criminal defendants in rural areas where there has traditionally been a shortage of lawyers. Although that office has largely been disbanded, it served as the foundation for establishing the more robust system of brick and mortar public defender offices that the State is developing.
PDS now has five existing public defender offices that represent indigent people in criminal cases across five regions and ten counties. We also have one developing office that will represent indigent parents in child protective cases across the state in areas where child protection attorneys are most needed.