Berrien County commissioners motioned 9-2 to pass an indigent defense program on Thursday, which will employ full-time and private attorneys under contract to defend those in the court system who cannot afford a lawyer.
The current system contracts with law firms that provide 15 part-time attorneys for adult representation. Those contracts end on Dec. 31.
For the past year, commissioners have been debating how to proceed with the program and whether renewing the contracts or implementing a hybrid program that would employ full-time and private attorneys is the best option.
The new program is estimated to cost roughly $490,000 more than the 2016 indigent defense program, but Berrien County administrator Bill Wolf said that this expense will likely be reimbursed by the state.
Wolf said that would bring the total cost for the 2017 budget to $1.4 million, not including the cost of juvenile defenders, which are contracted separately.
“We need to do what is right for the citizens of Berrien County and not get hung up on the money side of it,” Wolf said during an informational meeting on Oct. 6.

The 2016 indigent defense program currently costs about 1.2 million and employs 15 part-time private attorneys.
Berrien County Indigent Defense Administrator Carl Macpherson presented commissioners with a set of pros and cons to adopting the program on Oct. 6, during an informational meeting. Macpherson, of Libertyville, Illinois, was hired in late February to examine the current indigent defense program.
Macpherson identified several weaknesses in the current system that may harm the representation of some clients in Berrien County Court System.
“First of all you would have full-time and not part-time employers that have expectations and will be held accountable, which we do not have now, and they will be more prepared and provide better representation,” Macpherson said.
He cited prosecutors being expected to meet with their clients before every single court date (a benefit he said that some pre-sentenced clients do not get currently), a uniformity to files as well as data research collection and using a staff investigator to study the cases and make sure that things are happening as they should.
As for cons, he said that there is a possibility of more defense motions being filed, especially when the system is implemented at the beginning of the year, because he said attorneys need to show and prove that they can take a case to trial. He also said that making employees full-time means more time spent responding to people in need of representation.
“Because full-time public defenders are going to look diligently through the case,” he said.
The resolution stirred some debate among Berrien County judges, who said that they felt that commissioners were rushing into the resolution before a fully fleshed out plan was in place.
On Thursday, Berrien County Judge Donna Howard presented her concerns to commissioners.
“It appears based on the gravity of the decision that you are making, that to me, it seems rushed or without all the objective information that maybe you should (have), or some questions that need to be fleshed out a little bit more, and those are the concerns that brought me here today,” she said.
Before the vote that morning, commissioner Jeanette Leahey said her opinion was that the commissioner should pass the resolution.
“We have been in the process of reviewing this for a long, long time,” she said. “We asked for a report to be done and a study. It has been completed. Information has come back and it is apparent there are several areas that need to be looked at.”