Justice in Sequesterland

/ The Old Crank

From a WBUR interview with Miriam Conrad, who heads the federal public defenders office for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, talking about the impact of sequester cuts at her office, where she may have to cut more than a quarter of their staff in about a month:

The other problem is, even in the cases that we keep, if we don’t have as many investigators and paralegals to help us prepare the case, there are going to be delays. And the longer there are delays the longer people who are held in custody in jail, pending trial, are going to stay in jail at an approximate cost of $2,000 a month. And you’re likely to have cases in which defendants say that their speedy trial rights have been violated, and you’ll see motions to dismiss.

Do these cuts affect prosecutors as well?

No.

Why not?

Well, that’s a great question. You can ask Congress that question. The U.S. attorney’s office this year did not have any furlough days. And, in fact, the Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved an increase of I think it was $79 million for U.S. attorneys offices with the express purpose of bringing more criminal cases in federal court. Of course, the more cases you have, the more lawyers you need on the defense side. And somehow, Congress has not joined the two and has not recognized that actually providing a defense is part of the cost of prosecuting a federal case. (my emphasis)

Quick Followup from Yesterday’s NSC Webinar

/ The Old Crank

Just a couple of quick followup notes from yesterday’s National Skills Coalition webinar on immigration reform.

  • During my presentation, I mentioned that we expect new estimates of adult literacy rates in the U.S. in October of this year, based on findings from a new survey, called the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies, or PIAAC. More information on PIAAC here.)In addition, the National Coalition for Literacy will be conducting a webinar about PIAAC tomorrow (July 31st) at 3pm.
  • A questioner asked about how to locate adult ESOL programs. I believe she was looking for more than a directory of programs, but more specifically, how to find best practices related to ESOL instruction in her local community. That’s a bit tougher for me to answer at a distance. At any rate, I did mention that there have been efforts to create and maintain a national database of adult literacy programs. Here are the two that I know about that might be helpful:

America’s Literacy Directory
National Literacy Directory

  • Finally, I thought participants may  be interested in this new World Education immigrant integration project, funded by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) at the U.S. Department of Education, which will “develop and implement a theoretical framework for immigrant integration and provide technical assistance to five immigrant integration networks with a dual focus on accelerating key services and on network development.” More information here.

National Skills Coalition Webinar on CIR

/ The Old Crank

I’ll be a panelist on a webinar hosted by the National Skills Coalition at noon today, talking about adult education in the context of comprehensive immigration reform. Depending on the questions we get, I may post some followup info here later this afternoon.

Senate HELP Committee Set to Markup the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 2013 Next Week

/ The Old Crank

The Senate Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) Committee has officially announced on its Web site that it will markup the Workforce Investment Act of 2013 on Wednesday, July 31, 2013.  The bill was introduced earlier today by Sens. Murray, Isakson, Harkin and Alexander.