Mass. inspector general reports public defender system is 'broken'

The public defender system in Massachusetts is "broken" and is one of the most costly in the country, according to a scathing new report from the state's inspector general.

The report said the state system, run by the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), has long been in need of reform and that issues were not properly addressed after last year's work stoppage, when public defenders refused to accept new cases while pressing for an increase in their hourly rates.

"The Commonwealth’s public defense system is broken, expensive, and is resistant to oversight," Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro said in a statement.

Among the issues cited in the report, the inspector general said CPCS does not follow the state mandate to assign 20% of cases to its own staff attorneys, and there is not an appropriate process by the probation department to verify whether a defendant is indigent and qualifies for a public defender.

That makes it "likely that a significant number of defendants have received state-funded attorneys without a verified need," Shapiro concluded.

The report also said the public defender agency has "too many supervisors" and its staff attorneys work the lowest number of cases of many statewide public defender system, including those in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

CPCS responded, saying the report is "inaccurate" and relies on attorney caseload comparisons and metrics that do not reflect the reality of what the work requires.

"Public defense is not a mechanical system," said CPCS Chief Counsel Anthony Benedetti in an emailed statement. "Caseload numbers alone do not measure whether representation is constitutionally effective, or whether quality representation is actually being delivered."

The report took particular issue with last year's work stoppage by public defenders and said the agency "contributed to the detrimental effects of the work stoppage," with staff attorneys "absent during peak hours" and not taking phone calls from court staffers.

In Massachusetts, public defenders can be CPCS staff attorneys or "bar advocates" — private attorneys who agree to represent indigent defendants.

The lawyers' starting salaries were $65 per hour before lawmakers increased their pay. The attorneys said that rate was among the lowest in the nation and they were seeking raises of an additional $35 an hour the first year and subsequent raises after that.

After many public defenders stopped taking new criminal cases in the 2025 pay dispute, the courts held so-called "Lavallee protocol hearings" to either dismiss cases or release people from custody if they were not able to quickly arrange public legal representation. Those hearings resulted in 1,689 cases being dismissed and 213 defendants released on bail. The inspector general said if CPCS had met the mandated case assignment requirements, many criminal cases might not have been dismissed.

"CPCS was largely absent and let the gap in coverage play out between the courts and the bar advocates, to the detriment of the public and the unrepresented defendants," the report said.

Attorneys with the newly formed Massachusetts Association of Private Appointed Counsel also dispute the inspector general's report, saying it does not take into account what it calls failures by prosecutors and the judiciary. The association said the state Supreme Judicial Court could have gone further to help resolve the funding dispute and that prosecutors added to the problem by re-filing dismissed cases and duplicating efforts, with little oversight of charging decisions.

"It is charging volume, not the defense, that drives the demand for appointed counsel — and unexamined charging practices, not the defense, that inflate its cost," the association's president, Sean Delaney, said in an emailed statement.

While the state approved the hiring of more public defenders and a pay raise of $20 an hour over two years, the report said attorney participation has not returned to the level before the stoppage because "hourly rates for bar advocates are only a symptom of the problem, not the cure."

The inspector general acknowledged that the report is not yet complete, saying litigation is pending with CPCS over releasing case docket numbers to complete the analysis. The report recommends more state oversight and enforcement of mandated attorney staffing, changes within CPCS, such as billing controls and caseload oversight, and incentives for attorneys to take on new criminal cases.

Benedetti said his agency will send lawmakers a detailed response to the inspector general's report that "examines its findings, methodology and conclusions in detail."