The Capital Area Private Defense Service (CAPDS) and the newly established Public Defender’s Office (PDO) are responsible for providing public defense services in Travis County. As part of funding from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC), Travis County is evaluating the effectiveness, efficiency, and fairness of these services.

PPRI will work closely with Travis County stakeholders to conduct the study. When possible, PPRI will use the ABA Ten Principles or other national or state standards as a framework for analysis. Our study approach includes a mix of data collection and analysis strategies centered on identifying the overall effectiveness of Travis County’s public defense system.

1. First, we interview stakeholders in leadership positions and supplement that with document review to better under the current processes of public defense services in the county and the role of each office.

2. We complement this with analysis of case level data to understand the scope of the public defense services such as number of people represented, number of new cases and cases disposed, time from initial appointment to initial contact and interview, attorney-client interactions, pretrial incarceration rates and days, bond types and amounts, attorney caseloads, time to disposition, and case outcomes.

3. The research team will then conduct virtual/in-person interviews with attorneys from both the CAPDS and PDO to validate some of the findings using case level data but also to ask about use of resources such as investigators, immigration lawyers, defense experts, translators, etc. and to better understand challenges and successes in day-to-day activities.

4. PPRI will also survey clients to measure satisfaction levels focusing on amount of time spent with attorneys, communications, and case outcomes.

5. Finally, the study will conduct a cost analysis of the current public defense services looking at the average cost per case by office taking into consideration case specificity.