This past week, Governor Rick Snyder issued an executive order appointing 10 people to serve on an "advisory commission".  Their mission: to quickly assess and make recommendations to the executive and legislature about the delivery of effective legal representation to the indigent accused.

Along with the 10 gubernatorial appointees, the commission also includes state legislative leaders from each political party; two from the state house and two from the state senate.

In reviewing the Governor's appointments, it was good to see Oakland County well represented.  Oakland County Circuit Judge Colleen O'Brien is on the commission along with former Oakland County Bar Association President Judith Gracey.

The problem presented to the Commission is how to provide effective assistance of counsel, as guaranteed under the United States and the Michigan Constitutions, for accused individuals that cannot afford to hire a lawyer.  Michigan is considered to be among the worst states in the Union in providing legal services for indigents.

This blog covered the problem last October when the Michigan Supreme Court reversed course in the Duncan v State of Michigan case, granting summary disposition to a constitutional challenge to our system of court appointed legal counsel.  So now the executive branch will make an attempt to fix what most everyone agrees is a broken system.

Here in Oakland County, this blogger has observed many a colleague providing quality legal service on a court-appointed [thus, low paying] basis.  A court-appointed lawyer may go through 50 pleas before taking a case to trial.

Similarly, at the appellate level, roster attorneys for the Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System subsist on a steady diet of guilty plea appeals which are essentially thankless fools' errands; done dirt cheap.  These MAACS attorneys, however, wait for a legitimate appellate assignment to come along, providing the opportunity to file a merits brief seeking to correct a constitutional wrong.

While professionally gratifying, the trial and/or appellate attorney can expect to be compensated at the rate of about $20 - $25 per hour.

Former Oakland Circuit Judge Barry Howard (left) and
Attorney Edward Pappas co-chaired the task force.

The lawyers saw it coming long ago.  With waves of deep budget cuts crashing down upon the public sector, how could the judiciary keep-up with the ever higher demand for its high-quality service we have come to expect?  Judicial reform.

At the direction of the Michigan Supreme Court, the State Bar of Michigan selected a task force of attorneys and judges from across the state back in early-2009.  The task force met for a full-day each month from September 2009 through last May, gathering ideas, discussing problems and suggested solutions, and debating various cost-cutting strategies.

Last week, the task force announced its findings and recommendations.  The following are the more significant findings and recommendations of the task force:

• Our state courts have a mixed-funding structure rather than a state-funded system, with municipalities and court-generated revenues contributing heavily to each county court's operational costs.  This patch-work is having a disparate impact on various courts throughout the state, with some areas getting hit much harder than others; 
• Our 83 counties are served by 585 full-time trial court judges at the district, circuit and probate levels.  The number of judgeships should be reduced according to up-to-date demographic data and historic caseload data; 
• The recommended reduction in judgeships must only take place upon the retirement of currently sitting judges in order to maintain judicial independence; 
• Judicial services should be coordinated and consolidated by region after the "best practices" are identified;
• Increased flexibility among court administrators in the reassignment of workload must occur once the recommended judicial downsizing and service coordination begins;
• Full and effective use of available technology to assist in the delivery of judicial services will reduce costs in the long-run; and 
• Continued use of innovative community-based programs in the trial court setting that address mental health and substance abuse problems will continue to yield significant cost savings.

Basically, the courts will have to do more with less resources.  A familiar song among the state workers and teachers spread throughout the counties and across the nation.

The good news for attorneys practicing in Oakland County is that we have already have most of the docket converted to an e-file system.  There are still some dockets -criminal and some family law cases- that do not currently accommodate electronic filings.

Another innovation to take hold in some of the county circuit courts in Southeast Michigan is electronic file retrieval or Internet-based databases that are searchable by members of the public. A good example of this system is Oakland County's Court Explorer where you can search the docket entries in a case and, for a very nominal fee, order a copy of any document filed in the case.  Usually, in a few hours, the document show-up in your email.

Another (even better) example of electronic access is the Wayne County Probate Court where the documents are imaged and available for viewing electronically with the click of your mouse.  As for the Wayne Circuit Court, however, not so much...

Roster attorneys for the Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System (MAACS), for example, physically have to be present on the 9th floor of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in order to access our client's register of actions in Wayne County.  This amounts to difficult "access to justice" when, on an appeal, you are simply trying to piece together the procedural history of your client's case.

Electronic docket access differs widely from county to county.  In Genesee, the docket entries of a case is displayed in fragmented screen images.  If you print-out the register of actions in the case, you get several pages of chopped-up, difficult-to-read DOS-style text.  A waste of paper, and definitely not user-friendly.

While the idea behind the task force was to identify some of the "best practices" at the county level and implement them state-wide, this blog wonders whether this will be possible at the political level.

Our law firm's attorneys and paralegals access county court records everyday across the State of Michigan.  From our perspective, standardization of electronic access would greatly improve our efficiencies in the delivery of legal services.

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Law Blogger Editor's Note:  From time to time, this blogger visits clients in Michigan's prisons as a roster attorney for the Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System.  This blog post is the original content of the CorrectionsOne web site.  It is an interview with Deborah Jiang Stein who was born heroin-addicted in a federal prison in West Virginia and spent the first year of her life there.  Today, she tours women's prisons to speak of hope and rehabilitation to both inmates and prison staff.

What can you say about spending your first year of life in prison? How did that shape you?

I was born and lived my first year in the Federal Women’s Prison in Alderson, West Virginia. I embrace that year as a primal sensory memory, most vivid when I visit now as an inspirational speaker. I recognize familiar sounds -- something I can’t quite name -- and the food service, which hasn’t changed since the prison was built in the 1940’s. Other areas of the compound I feel with a cellular intensity.

Born heroin addicted, I’m told and read in prison files that in my first year I displayed the usual problems of drug-exposed infants -- sensory overload, and physical and emotional delays. It’s taken a lifetime to re-wire my brain and I’m still learning how to manage some of these delays.

Multiple broken attachments, from mother to foster care to adoption, shaped my early life as a timid and angry girl. That first year of attachment to my mother in prison saved me, I believe, because at least I bonded. Later, the movement and losses from mother to foster family to adoptive family took years for me to identify, then grieve, and integrate. This is a lot for a child to metabolize.

You’ve recently written a memoir. Why now?

I began my memoir because several agents and editors suggested I do so. My story is a lesson for others, I’ve come to understand, and touches common themes in many people’s lives, especially themes related to secrets and stigmas. I’ve turned mine from a burden into a blessing as I write and speak about my journey and what I’ve learned. I also write about coming of age in the 1960s, being multiracial, and adopted into a white family.

We all have secrets. Everyone. Mine might be more dramatic than some, but everyone has at least one secret. My story is a testimony to encourage others to face and move beyond their secrets, past whatever pain and shame they hold.

My agent is now shopping my memoir proposal.

You now have a career as a public speaker; what message are you trying to put out there?

These days I’m speaking about the havoc caused by shame and secrets. I’ve learned that it’s not secrets that destroy us -- it’s the keeping of secrets that destroy. I spent years on the run outside the law in a world of crime and drug addiction, all because of the stigma and secrets I held about my prison roots, and other damages I’ve faced.

My story also speaks to the common thread of how we all look for hope in our lives. I’m evidence that even when the odds are stacked against a person, we can rise and overcome adversity.

I see myself as a scout, a guide for women who seek an alternative reality to the one they live. I carry a message of possibility, that we can all somehow live with what’s irreconcilable.

Besides women in prisons, I address professionals in the fields of mental health, child welfare, corrections and other social services, as well as higher education. I’ve learned that professionals in the field also seek personal growth for themselves, not just for the people they serve. 

What are some particular challenges faced by women in prison who are mothers?

One problem is the stigma of prison for a mother and her children.

The biggest wound is the broken bond between mother and child. The list goes on: missing a baby’s first smile; that first step; even the baby throwing up on you. A missed birthday party, first day of school, first date, graduation, everything a parent normally shares with a child.

I’ve read stories about women whose “hormones ricocheted wildly, ached from the milk that would not be nursed out of her swollen breasts, and she [the mother] used heroin smuggled into the prison to deaden the shame and loneliness.” I’m saddened, still, that this is in part my prison mother’s story.

Children born into prisons aren’t something many readers hear about, and even many of our readers (most of whom work in corrections) probably aren’t very aware of the phenomenon. Do you have any numbers on how children born in prisons? How does the system handle these people?

About 85% of women in prison are mothers. Almost 2 million children under the age of eighteen have a parent in prison, and most of these kids are under age ten. That’s a population larger than the city of San Francisco, larger than the state of Delaware. According to the Bureau of Justice, anywhere from 4%-7% of women sentenced are pregnant. This translates into close to 10,000 babies born to mothers in prisons. There are currently seven women’s state prison nurseries. My recent article for the Child Welfare League of America “Babies Behind Bars” highlights these nurseries and the issues involved with babies in prison.

How are pregnant women behind bars viewed by other women?

Since the majority of women in prison are mothers, I’m told for the most part, inmates can relate to those who are pregnant. One “old timer” told me that when she was in jail and in the early stages of her pregnancy in 1974, if she’d needed any protection, her friends would’ve “stood up for her.” 

Many states still shackle pregnant women, and a chain around the belly can harm a fetus. A number of groups lobby to improve the services for pregnant women in prisons. I look forward to seeing these changes, look forward to the day when adequate resources for mental health and addiction in our communities. This alone can help reduce our rising rate of incarceration. 

Deborah Jiang Stein is a writer and keynote speaker, and tours women's prisons as an inspirational speaker. She's working on a memoir and short story collection. Visit www.deborahstein.com for more information.

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