PJ, I can’t figure out what money he could be getting from defendants. A judge rules that you qualify for a public defender, so I don’t understand how you can charge them money. If it turns out they lied to get a public defender, that would be a charge in separate trial, and handled by the state’s attorney. The incumbent who brought this up is a flake, so I don’t know that I believe anything he says.

Wha?!

This is happening?

I’m often naive, but I was under the impression that the whole point of having a Public Defender was to provide representation for any0ne not wealthy enough to pay lawyer fees. You know, “If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”

I’m aware that we’ve been doing things like charging prisoners for their room and board (often in private, for-profit jails) for a while now, as well as renting prison labor to corporations, but this seems like a whole new low in jurisprudence. What the hell happened to the America they all told me about growing up?

I’ve never gotten used to electing judges in Texas… on a partisan basis. The first year the Republican candidates for judge ran ads en masse as Republicans (“vote for these judicial candidates; they’re Republicans”), possibly 20 or 25 years ago, I just about soiled my pants. Now it seems a commonplace, but I still haven’t gotten used to a one-party judiciary. Some are good; some are evil. But no Democrat, good or evil, is ever elected as a state or county judge.