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Approved Bexar County courthouse change aims to keep poor people out of prison

Research indicates about 80% of those charged with a crime can't afford a lawyer. Bexar County will confront that statistic by overhauling its public defense system.

SAN ANTONIO — Bexar County commissioners agreed to overhaul the San Antonio public defense system Tuesday, in an effort to keep poor people out of prison. 

About 80% of people charged with a crime cannot afford their own attorney, according to the National Legal Aid and Defenders' Association. Judges assign those defendants a public lawyer, who is often strapped with hundreds of cases. 

Many criminals meet court-appointed attorneys for the first time in front of a judge. Defendants with private representation, meanwhile, are less likely to spend time in jail. 

"Do we criminalize (indigent defendants) further and make it harder for them to advance in their lives, or do we do something to actually stop the underlying causes of crime?" administrative Judge Ron Rangel said Tuesday. 

He pushed commissioners to adopt the new Managed Assigned Counsel (MAC) program, in which judges are no longer responsible for administrating the public defense system. 

The MAC director will instead assign attorneys to each indigent defendant, ensuring no lawyer is stuck with more work than they can handle. 

The program will also connect accused criminals with city and county resources like therapy, addiction treatment, or housing assistance. 

Judges did not have time to do that effectively by themselves under the old system, Rangel said. 

"We have currently over 30,000 cases pending in Bexar County. We have 23 judges, both district and county, that handle those 30,000 cases," he said. "It's too massive to handle administratively." 

"Now, if a defendant has a court-appointed attorney, they don't have one lawyer that represents them—they have a team of attorneys. They have a law firm," Rangel continued. 

Removing judges from an administrative role also eliminates potential for conflicts of interest involving public defenders' salaries or workload. 

A state grant will cover 80% of the program's cost. Bexar County has already budgeted more than $400,000 to pay the rest of the tab. 

All San Antonio defendants except those charged in children's court will have access to MAC, making it the nation's largest Managed Assigned Council program. 

Rangel said he expects the program, once well-established, could save taxpayers more than $1 million each year. 

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