LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
HUFFINGTON
10.28.12
Assembly
Line
Justice
N THIS WEEK’S Huffington, John Rudolf
takes us inside the
world of public defenders, the “workhorses of the
legal system” putting in long
hours for low pay to represent
criminal defendants who cannot
afford private lawyers.
By featuring a single public
defender’s office, John illustrates
the lose-lose predicament many
in the profession are facing:
overworked, underfunded, and
drowning in casework, public defenders are unable to adequately
represent the clients who desperately need their services.
Meanwhile, America’s prisons
and jails hold more people than
any other country’s on earth.
ART STREIBER
I
John introduces us to Ed Olexa,
a public defender in one of Pennsylvania’s most beleaguered offices. Olexa’s territory is Hazleton,
the blue-collar city where he grew
up — and which he has watched
deteriorate in recent years into
a battleground of gangs. His clients are mostly young and mostly
broke. Unable to post bail, many
of them sit in jail, waiting for
their court date. And once Olexa
— who is technically part-time
but rises before dawn each morning and works weekends — has
the chance to actually represent
them in their case, it’s not in the
slow and careful way he’d prefer,
with more time spent with each
client to explain details and consequences. Instead, it means af-
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