Indigent Defense

What's New | Conferences | Funding | T. A./Training
Fielded Programs | Research and Statistics | Links Outside OJP

Technical Assistance and Training

Assessment and Enhancement of Indigent Defense Services (Project of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association)
This project assists state and local indigent defense organizations to improve the management of drug and violent crime cases. The National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) will develop and distribute comprehensive evaluation instruments for the project's onsite training and various technical assistance initiatives. The results of the training will be compiled and analyzed to improve and expand technical assistance to the defender community in the future. NLADA will also begin an in-depth study of defender caseloads and workloads that will be an important resource to update caseload standards.

NATIONAL JUVENILE DEFENDER CENTER (ABA) This project is a part of the Juvenile Justice Center's Defense Resources which collects the latest information and links in the field of juvenile justice defense.

The ABA has also developed and delivered specialized training to juvenile defenders in several jurisdictions, such as the State of Maryland, the State of Tennessee, Baltimore County, Maryland, and several other states and localities, to assist in increasing the capacity of juvenile defenders to provide more effective defense services. In October 1997, the ABA and its partners organized and implemented the first Juvenile Defender Summit at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. The summit brought together public defenders, court-appointed lawyers, law school clinic directors, juvenile offender services representatives, and others for a 2-1/2-day meeting to examine the issues related to juvenile defense services and recommend strategies for improving these services.

The summit resulted in a report and recommendations that emerged from the seven working groups. One of these recommendations was to maintain a Juvenile Defender Center. The ABA was selected to create and run the center.