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Today, I speak with Bennet Baur, the Chief Public Defender of New Mexico.

With the power of the people behind them, Ben Baur and the New Mexico Public Defenders were able to find independence and fight for desperately needed reforms.\xa0

Yet a decade after gaining independence, the Law Offices of the Public Defender can handle only one-third of the cases they carry.

This week, join us as we uncover what is going right, what is going wrong, and how our community is put in danger because of a lack of public defense funding.\xa0

Bennet Baur is a wonderful example of what happens when a public defender cares about personal freedom.\xa0

Key Topics and Takeaways:

• Bennet\u2019s role and how his office came to be [3:49]
• Important public policy issues in new Mexico public defense [8:10]
• The 2007 caseload report that was done on New Mexico public defense [11:19]
• Why public defense should be the baseline on how cases are charged [12:52]
• The problems with a flat fee system [22:56]
• What happens when a client is waiting for representation [35:29]
• Problem with probations and how they are moving into a harm reduction model [41:12]
• Representation of migrants [47:52]

Guests:

Bennet Baur, Chief Public Defender at New Mexico Law Offices of the Public Defender

Resources:

American Bar Association New Mexico Project

2007 Caseload Study\xa0

2021 Caseload Study\xa0

New Mexico Public Defender Website\xa0

New Mexico Safe\xa0

Memorable Quotes:

\u201cIt\u2019s also policy, you know not just advocating for our clients, but advocating for what we think is good public policy.\u201d (7:32, Ben)

\u201cBecause I work in the system, I believe that over-incarceration, that just putting people in jail, isn\u2019t going to solve the problem.\u201d (10:05, Ben)

\u201cWhen those mistakes interact with a human being\u2019s life, liberty, and their ability to make a living, those are mistakes that can\u2019t happen.\u201d ( 20:32, Hunter)

\u201cThe system is based upon is lawyers doing a lot of work for free for the state. And that's not the way that this should work. It shouldn\u2019t be up to a lawyer to do work for free, which is what happens to provide ethical representation.\u201d (28:11, Ben)

\u201cGive us more money or give us fewer cases.\u201d (33:49, Ben)

\u201cI\u2019ll say it again. We missed the point of these bail reforms. There are certain individuals who, because of poverty, are not a threat to the community and are in jail.\u201d (38:01, Hunter)

\u201cI hate that we as a society always have an overreaction to everything that happens, whether it\u2019s on the left or right, or something bad happens that we don\u2019t like. And then we over-correct, so we make it just as bad. And we can't get that pendulum to just sit right in the middle where it works \u201d (39:11, Hunter)

\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t fund government services on poor people.\u201d (40:13, Ben)