The Nov/Dec 2008 edition of the Indiana Court Times, in the “Highlights from the 2007 Indiana Judicial Service Report (JSR)” reported $15,896,397 as the total amount spent by counties on criminal indigent defense for 2007. This figure is an error, and the total amount spent should have been reported as $25,320,081. Even this latter figure, however, does not fully represent the total spent on criminal indigent defense services in Indiana. This is due to under-reporting of expenditures by some counties using independent public defender agencies and additional amounts spent by the state of Indiana through its Public Defender Fund. Adding these under-reported county expenses of $30,010,568 and the $15,000,000 paid from the state general fund, the total expenditure on criminal indigent defense services in Indiana was over $70,000,000 in 2007.
If anyone has a question on this or any other subject relating to the Public Defender program in Indiana, please contact Deborah Neal at 317-232-2542 or by email at [email protected].