McDowntown

Wow, I really would be so 'proud' of a downtown that you could put into the microwave and woosh! there it is, read to it. Who in this world values a home cooked meal anymore?

Broke As A Joke, But It Ain't Funny

The Hamilton County Commissioners have ordered all departments to cut their budgets by six percent for the last five months of the year. According to the Enquirer, Sheriff Simon Leis says he'll comply, but it's clear that he'll make sure we all notice:

Effective August 1, there will be less room in the Hamilton County jail, fewer deputies patrolling county communities and no one manning metal detectors at the courthouse or other county buildings.

Based on the comments linked to the article (I'm still not sure why it's a good idea for a newspaper--as opposed to a blog--to permit reader comments), a lot of people think Leis is whining, bluffing, or both.

I don't think he is.

We've already noticed one conspicuously absent guard in the Justice Center. For those of you who haven't been there, it's comprised of two buildings, connected to each other by a covered bridge at the second floor level. One of the buildings is connected to the courthouse by a covered bridge, as well. Typically, a deputy sits in a control room outside the secured areas of each of the buildings. Until this week. That's when Sheriff Leis eliminated the schedule for the deputy assigned to sit in the control room in the "South" building. So to visit inmates in the South building, attorneys (or probations officers, medical professionals, clergy, etc.) must now go to the North building, check in with the control room there, ride to the second floor, walk across the tunnel to the South building, and then take the South elevator to their final destination. This includes people trying to see inmates in the holding cells on the first floor of the South building, behind the courtrooms where defendants make their initial appearances.

I can't believe that Sheriff Leis is happy about this change. Visitors are all issued badges that show where they're headed. So if someone wanders away from the area to which their access is approved, it's always been easy for the corrections officers to tell at a glance. Now, though, the CO's will have to deal with people walking through the North building even though they have no business there--because it's the only way to get to the South building. The situation has to raise grave security concerns.

I've been interested by my own reaction to the announced elimination of metal detector coverage in the courthouse. I've always had a distaste for the increased security in government buildings over the past fifteen years, and have felt it unfair to have to subject one's self to a search as a condition of entry. But I'll admit: I'm unnerved by the thought of everyone entering the courthouse without passing through security. Lots of emotionally volatile things take place in our courtrooms every day. Once security is gone, lots of us will fear that an overwrought crime victim or family member will show up in a courtroom ready to exact his or her own form of justice.

The county is broke, folks. The question isn't whether it is, or whether to cut the budget. It's not even how we got here. (HamCo Republican Boss Triantafilou has decided to blame the Democrats. Apparently, he's forgotten that it's his Republican President's failed policies that have put our economy (and thus county revenues) into a death spiral, and Republican Bob Bedinghaus who was largely responsible for the terrible stadium deal.)

Now, we have to ask ourselves some real questions about revenue. How do we get more of it? How do we raise enough to provide at least a bare minimum of government services? I'm not sure anyone has the answer.

Flannery Attacked by Extremists

I don't think anyone would be surprised to find out that Mary Kuhl would try to stick it to CPS Board Member Michael Flannery over an email he sent regarding development in Westwood.

Does Westwood Concern (Mary Kuhl's micro-jingoistic organization bent on ridding Westwood of non-Aryans) oppose development everywhere, including in Westwood? Are jobs bad? Does opening a Bed & Breakfast attract the poor blacks too much for their taste?

Something Inside Of That Man Is Broken

With Sunday's column, Peter Bronson has finally jumped the shark. He's gone from merely being a conservative who often misses the point to revealing himself to be a man who displays a total lack of human empathy and whose venom towards people who he can't--or won't--understand is worthy of our condemnation.

Apparently, Bronson spent a few hours following Lou Strigari, the Hamilton County Public Defender, while Mr. Strigari handled felony arraignments for his office's incarcerated clients. Bronson's conclusion? Take a look:

Contrary to what you hear from people who talk a lot about injustice, these guys belong behind bars and they know it.

Keep in mind that Bronson is writing here about pretrial detainees--that is, individuals whose guilt has not yet been established. Moreover, I'm not sure which inmates Bronson talked to, but certainly not any of my clients. I've yet to sit down in the Justice Center or Queensgate (or any other jail, for that matter) and have a client say to me, "Mr. Caster, thanks for coming, but you know what? I belong in here." Instead, my clients--even the ones who acknowledge their guilt--are worried about how to take of their families, about how to change their lives so they're not back in the justice system again after they finish paying for the mistake they've just made, or about that their future will look like if they have to serve time in prison.

What makes Bronson's judgment particularly reprehensible is that he was around inmates and corrections officers long enough to find out that some of the people he met need help. Again, from Bronson's own poison pen:

The jails would be nearly empty without mental illness and drugs. The guards agree that two-thirds of the prisoners have mental health issues, and 75 percent arrive under the influence of something.

(Emphasis mine.) I'm not sure if those numbers are really accurate (they're obviously anecdotal and rough estimates). But for Bronson to write that "these guys belong behind bars" while at the same time acknowledging that the majority of them suffer from mental health issues seems beyond comprehension. Is that what "compassionate conservativism" is about? Incarcerating people who need treatment? I don't understand how to reconcile those two excerpts from Bronson's piece.

This is a difficult week for attorneys who provide indigent defense in Hamilton County. Everyone involved knew that the system wasn't perfect. But reading the National Legal Aid & Defenders Association's hundred-plus page assessment of the provision of legal services here and how much it differs from a lot of places around the country makes me want to go back to bed, pull up the covers, and not come out until the system is fixed. (I certainly don't agree with each of NLADA's findings and recommendations, but overall, they get more right than they get wrong. And remember: the report isn't done by a bunch of nosy outsiders who should have minded their own business; the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners requested and paid for this assessment.) But as tough as it is to read the NLADA's report, it's even harder to read Bronson's hatred of all things--and people--that aren't suburban and just like him.

Griff: sorry about this. I know it's your job to beat on Bronson, but I couldn't hold back on this one.

Obama a Hit on the Square

For the thousands that were on Fountain Square to see Barak Obama speak to the NAACP Convention it was an electric event. I have never been on the square with a bigger crowd, so if you have pictures from above, please post them on line and share the links.

The most entertaining part of the event was hear the WLWT announcers astonishment at how big of a crowd was on Fountain Square for the speech. They thought maybe a few hundred would show up. Instead it was a few thousand.

John McCain speaks tomorrow and I will be surprised if he gets this type of crowd, especially since he is speaking in the morning vs. the evening.

I was greatly impressed with the speech. It wasn't full of a lot of details, which needs to change when he gets to the Democratic Convention. The way the crowd was really interested in what he said was refreshing. People far too often seem uninterested.

As I walked to the Square last night, I was confident that Obama would carry Hamilton County. Afterwards, I am certain Obama will carry Hamilton County.

Chime in if you were there.

Summer Reading

I know that Jack is our resident book reviewer, but I thought I'd commend two books (that couldn't be more different) for your summer reading needs:

1. Kafka Comes To America: Fighting for Justice in the War On Terror. This book is written by Steven Wax, a Federal Public Defender charged with representing some of those who have been held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. He also represented Brandon Mayfield, the Oregon lawyer who was falsely accused of participating in the Madrid train bombings in 2004. It's a terrific insider's account of the process of defending accused terrorists. One of the details in the books that particularly surprised me: lawyers were permitted to bring food to their clients in Gitmo.

2. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. This is the debut novel of David Wroblewski that has taken up residence on the bestsellers' list for the last several weeks. The bulk of reviews will tell you that the novel evokes Hamlet and White Fang. But I also sense (though I'm far from a literary critic) the influences of Catcher in the Rye and John Steinbeck. It's a terrific story, wonderfully told, that you won't be able to put down until you're through. The last week, I literally haven't been able to wait to finish up at the office to get back home to the book. It's a must-read for anyone who loves either dogs or good stories or both.

Ted Strickland: Meet Clarence Gideon

Today's Enquirer summarizes a report just released by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association on the Hamilton County Public Defender's Office.


Full disclosure: I have not read the full report and cannot find it on the internet, so I take the Enquirer's summary as accurate. Further, a significant portion of my own law practice is devoted to indigent defense as an attorney contracted by the Public Defender to defend both felony and misdemeanor cases. So I operate in this area from a huge conflict of interest, which I both recognize and now disclose.


I'm not going to comment on the bulk of the allegations (at least one of which I find outright unbelievable) or NLADA's recommendations. But one thing is clear from both the report and the comments by those quoted in the article: the State of Ohio needs to step up to the plate with funds to guarantee that indigent defendants receive effective assistance of counsel. I'd hoped that once a Democrat took up residency in the Governor's Mansion we might see some real leadership on this issue, but so far, there's been nothing but silence from Ted Strickland.


This year marked the forty-fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, which held that the right-to-counsel clause of the Sixth Amendment required the states to provide counsel to those who could not afford to retain an attorney. (It had long been established that the federal government was required to do so in federal criminal cases, but Gideon was the first time the Court recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated (that is, made applicable to the states) the protections of the Sixth Amendment.) It's clear that nearly a half-century later, we still have much work to do to protect those in our society who are most vulnerable to the loss of their liberty or life at the hands of the State.

A few months after the decision, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had this to say about Gideon:

If an obscure Florida convict named Clarence Earl Gideon had not sat down in prison with a pencil and paper to write a letter to the Supreme Court, and if the Supreme Court had not taken the trouble to look for merit in that one crude petition among all the bundles of mail it must receive every day, the vast machinery of American law would have gone on functioning undisturbed.

But Gideon did write that letter. The Court did look into his case and he was retried with the help of a competent defense counsel, found not guilty, and released from prison after two years of punishment for a crime he did not commit, and the whole course of American legal history has been changed.

The report of NLADA's assessment is in sharp juxtaposition to this article, also in today's Enquirer, which reports that Ohio's machinery of death is once again churning.

A final note: nothing in this post should be read to impugn the individual attorneys who toil at the Hamilton County Public Defender's Office, or at any other Public Defender's office in Ohio. The attorneys who work there are eager, bright, talented individuals (most of whom could practice in the private sector for far greater pay and far fewer headaches) who are tirelessly devoted to passionately advocating for their clients with too little salary, too few resources, and not nearly enough support. But we need to start thinking about whether--and if so, how--our Public Defender's Office differs from those held out as models of indigent defense, such as the Cook County (Illinois) and District of Columbia public defenders' offices. The answer starts with adequately funding the office charged with safeguarding the liberty of the people of this county.