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Reps. Seek More Money for Federal Prosecutors

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Tue Jul 25, 2006 at 05:59:46 AM EST
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Do our federal prosecutors really need more money? That's what Reps. Henry Waxman and John Conyers think. Here's their letter to Congress.(pdf)

Will there be an equal increase for federal defenders?

White Collar Crime Blog has some thoughts on the matter.

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    Reps. Seek More Money for Federal Prosecutors | 3 comments (3 topical)
    Re: Reps. Seek More Money for Federal Prosecutors (none / 0) (#1)
    by scribe on Tue Jul 25, 2006 at 08:11:40 AM EST
    This, despite increasing budgets. One is compelled to wonder where the money's gone. Crony hires? NSA snooping? Air marshal raises and bonuses for making their quotas? And, vis-a-vis the defenders and their budget, Bashman notes the need, in the Sixth Circuit, for a judge to speak up against her colleagues, who would criticize defense counsel for doing their job.

    Re: Reps. Seek More Money for Federal Prosecutors (none / 0) (#2)
    by JSN on Tue Jul 25, 2006 at 08:44:06 AM EST
    It appears that DOJ is not able to compete with the private sector for attorneys and the other cost increases have sopped up some of the money. However in the civil rights division there have been credible charges of political favoritism. If that is a general problem with the DOJ that can also hamper retention and recrutiment of attorneys. There is an adversarial relation between prosecution and defense so it is difficult for me to believe that the DOJ has anything to do with Federal public defenders.

    Re: Reps. Seek More Money for Federal Prosecutors (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jul 25, 2006 at 10:19:46 AM EST
    jsn, FPDs are administratively an arm of the U.S. Courts, I think, and handled through their budget. And DoJ has never had to "compete" salary-wise. Especially since the salary wars of the late 90s they are far, far behind BigLaw -- but they've still got far more applicants than they could ever handle. However, the turnover rate has increased --- more and more people do their 3-5 rather than making a longer career out of it, which impacts each office's culture, common sense, and institutional competence. I know that in LA they've had a lot of attrition and been banned from filling the spaces. The fraud and other non-drug units have suffered the most -- a lot of slots are mandatory drug slots. If we changed our priorities, the remaining lawyers could make a major impact on fraud, environment, civil rights, etc. Of course, that won't happen.

    Reps. Seek More Money for Federal Prosecutors | 3 comments (3 topical)