Washington: Kamala Harris of California is introducing legislation, including a USD 250 million grant programme, to ease the burden on public defenders around the country. The legislation, being introduced Wednesday, is the latest foray into criminal justice reform for Harris, a former prosecutor and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who has said she wants to make the system more just.
According to a summary released by Harris’ Senate office, the proposal would create a grant program that would establish workload limits for full time public defenders, create pay parity between public defenders and prosecutors within five years and collect annual data on public defender workloads.
