Attempts to Help the Public Defender System

Attempts to Help the Public Defender System

Hello, my name is Payton McQuilkin. Recently in my English 1 class we have been doing a project on an issue in the world that we are passionate about. I choose to draw attention to how overworked a public defender is. Throughout my first blog post I realized so much more about the actual job of public defenders. I found that they have tons of cases and get more and more everyday. They have such little time to even talk with a client before appearing in front of the judge, and unfortunately in some cases, no time. In my second blog post I talked about how I did some original research. By this, I emailed an actual public defender in Brooklyn. In this interview I got a closer look in on the system. I was able to tell his goals, such as being able to get the court to see the clients as people not just criminals, and more about the job and know it was correct. I also interviewed my sister, Taylor Rogers. She had an experience with a public defender I thought she’d also be a good source.

Public defenders aren't a big topic in the world and no one really draws attention to how overworked the public defender's can get. The system is quite out of control. Especially in Louisiana, the public defenders are so overworked. Their pay is based off the traffic tickets and fines. My opinion is that people need to start standing up for the issue. So many people are affected everyday and nothing is happening. People need to take a stand and getting the information out there. Hopefully informing people will raise attention. Drawing attention will then raise awareness. The more people you have behind you supporting you will help. This is me working on my blog post!!

For this portion of the project we had to put our effort in to make a change to the issue we chose. My agent of change was putting the information out there. I created a website with the facts on how much a public defender actually does. I thought this was important because it gives more people the information they were unaware of. I raise attention to the website by showing my peers, family, and friends. I think informing people on the issue was helpful because if their ever in the need of a public defender they are now familiar with the system, they know more about and hopefully some people will have a passion to help raise awareness and get this system turned around. This is my website.

Throughout my project I had a lot of fun. I enjoyed informing people on how important this is to me. I shared a touching story, that was personal and I think showing how much it meant to me was special. I learned a better understanding of the system and it answered some questions I had with my experience. I learned the true facts of a public defender. It was also really amazing to hear what others were passionate about and learn further into their topics. People did touching topics also and it was interesting to see each one. I appreciate this project because it helped me a lot in so many ways. I am going through a lot with the system now and learning more about everything, educating myself to better understanding what would happen with my sister was spectacular. I think there is still much to be further done with the overworked public defenders, because giving the information across is only half the battle. I think once the courts start taking it in consideration and the system needs help. Of course I can’t fix it all, baby steps help!

Throughout this project learning about the different things a public defender goes through is amazing. I really put my all into the blog posts and put all my thoughts in them. The experiences I had is something I will never forget. This project gave the chance to gain information to  case of my very own sister and helped my understanding of where my sister is and what happened during her case. Here is my annotated bibliography of the sources I used throughout my project.