PLYMOUTH — Monday, the Marshall County Commissioners moved towards a change in the way the county handles public defenders for the court system.
Appearing before the Commissioners last month, Circuit Court Judge Janette Surrisi and Tami Napier, Judge of Superior Court 1, asked them to consider moving to a Public Defender Commission Board for the county. The board would have three members, one appointed by the Commissioners, a second by the four county judges, and a third independent member.
The state would set the standards of how many cases a public defender could handle and the amount of support services allowed. The state Public Defender Commission Board would then reimburse the county up to 40 percent of the expenditures.
Monday, the Commissioners took up the ordinance that would create the board. In the preliminary discussion, Commissioner Jesse Bohannon said that his understanding was that the board would create a higher cost for public defense in the county, but savings anticipated at other levels of the justice system would result in taxpayer savings for the county.
Surrissi, once again in attendance, confirmed that statement saying that studies had shown that counties that employed the Commission system saw a 16 percent reduction in jail population — that would equate to 20 inmates in Marshall County — as well as a decrease in recidivism and a 50 day shorter seperation from the home in child cases, in addition to reimbursement from the state.
The Commissioners voted unanimously for the ordinance to create the board, whose first task will be to put together a comprehensive fiscal plan for the program for presentation to the County Council to make a decision on whether the system is a good fit for Marshall County.
