When the Pennsylvania state legislature passed a budget on July 11, more than a week after the deadline to do so, it resurfaced the commonwealth’s problem of a structural budget deficit, which for years had been offset by federal COVID funds and other temporary revenue sources. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Our lawmakers have a host of options to balance the budget without cutting services or retirement funds; they simply need to put aside partisan games and act in the best interests of our communities.
Two significant reforms to the Pennsylvania criminal legal system were ignored by our legislature during the budget debate, even though they provided an opportunity to make our commonwealth fairer and more just while saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year.
The first opportunity for reform involves Pennsylvania’s felony murder law. In March, the state Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for second-degree murder are unconstitutional. The court gave the General Assembly until July 24 to determine how relief should apply to the roughly 1,100 people currently serving those unconstitutional sentences. Amidst the ongoing budget drama and its eventual resolution, lawmakers never addressed the felony murder question before they adjourned. That means that as of July 25, 1,100 Pennsylvanians are in prison serving illegal sentences.
That failure carries a steep price.
If the court orders resentencing, Pennsylvania’s public defender offices will bear much of the responsibility for representing those individuals. The estimated cost of that representation is approximately $35 million. Another unfunded mandate imposed by the General Assembly on an already overburdened public defense system. It is a cost that could have been avoided had state leaders engaged more earnestly with advocates to reach a legislative solution instead of punting the issue back to the courts.
The legislature’s ongoing failure to address the felony murder question adds a layer to another urgent issue that state lawmakers must address: constitutionally adequate state funding for public defense.
The United States Constitution guarantees every person the right to an attorney regardless of their ability to pay for one. Yet for decades, Pennsylvania has failed to provide any state funding for public defense.
Until 2024, we were one of only two states contributing zero funding to public defense. Today, our investment is just 1.25% of what is needed for constitutionally adequate funding, leaving defenders in nearly all counties buried under massive caseloads, unable to devote the time and attention they want and need to every indigent client they represent. And now their workload is about to increase by 1,100 clients.
We hit a historic milestone in 2024 when the governor signed the first-ever budget line item for indigent defense. The $7.5 million for public defense was a good start, but that amount is a drop in the bucket of what is needed.
Given the decades of neglect, our public defense system needs dramatically more funding to enable public defenders and appointed counsel to consistently and adequately serve their clients. The governor and state lawmakers must commit to fully funding public defense. Reaching constitutional adequacy will require an annual investment of $600 million per year to meet the needs of all 67 counties.
That may sound expensive, but the alternative costs taxpayers far more.
When public defense attorneys lack the time and resources needed to adequately manage their caseloads, people spend unnecessary days, weeks, or even months in jail awaiting trial. Jailing someone pretrial for that long is incredibly expensive, and those costs are borne by the taxpayers. Delayed cases also destabilize families, disrupt employment and weaken communities. Investing in a fully funded public defense system reduces unnecessary incarceration, improves court efficiency, and ultimately lowers long-term costs.
It’s far past time for our elected officials to stop leaning on short-term fixes, and even worse, pretending that if they ignore a catastrophic problem, it will simply go away. The ramifications of an underfunded public defense system will never disappear; they will just shift to new line items in our annual budget at the expense of all our resources. It’s time for vision and courage to prioritize the reality we face. It’s time to embrace long-term, sustainable solutions that might seem like a steep climb at first, but if properly implemented, will not only make Pennsylvania fiscally sound but will also go so much further in protecting our rights and liberties.
