MIDC Budget, Legislative Changes, and Other News – June 2018

June proved to be a busy legislative month for the MIDC. On June 21, Governor Snyder signed the budget approving $84 million to pay for all approved MIDC compliance plans in the next fiscal year. Now that the appropriations process is over, local systems should be preparing for implementation and regrouping their planning teams. Pursuant to the MIDC Act, indigent defense systems are required to comply with their plan within 180 days after receiving funding. The MIDC staff will be working with all funding units to assist with the implementation process and local systems should expect to work with their regional managers on the next steps.

The House and Senate passed House Bill 5985, which expands the authority of the Commission to:

• Implement a system of performance metrics to assess the provision of indigent defense services to be reported annually to the Governor, legislature and State Budget Office;
• Develop objective standards for courts to determine whether a defendant is partially indigent and for determining the amount a partially indigent defendant should contribute to their defense;
• Establish standards for MIDC-funded training and to measure the quality of the training;
• Serve as a clearinghouse for experts and investigators and for systems that request it, develop and operate a system to determine the need and availability for an expert or investigator;

The legislation also:

• Adds members to the Commission, the names of whom will be submitted to the Governor for appointment by Michigan Association of Counties, Michigan Township Association, Michigan Municipal League and State Budget Office;
• Provides that all contributions or reimbursements collected from partially indigent defendants shall be spent on indigent defense. Twenty percent of the funds will be remitted to LARA to be spent by the MIDC in support of indigent defense systems and 80% will be retained by local systems “for purposes of reimbursing the costs of collecting the funds…and funding indigent defense.”

The bill is expected to be signed soon by the governor and will be effective 180 days thereafter.  If there are any questions about the pending legislation, please contact MIDC’s legislative director, Marcela Westrate.

Aside from legislative business, the Commission reviewed the final compliance plans on June 12, approving 23 plans.  The plans and/or costs that were disapproved were submitted by Isabella County, Montcalm County, Oakland County (6^th Circuit Court and 52^nd District Courts), 43-1 District Court (Hazel Park), and the 17^th District Court (Redford).  These plans will proceed into mediation, pursuant to the MIDC Act.

Lastly, the MIDC heard public comment on the next set of standards which address the need for independence from the judiciary, defender workload limitations, qualification and review of attorneys accepting assignments in adult criminal cases, and economic disincentives and incentives. The public comment period is now closed for these standards, but concerns can be communicated to Regional Managers at any time.

The MIDC will meet next on August 21, 2018.  The Commission meets at 1:00 p.m. in Lansing for and all meetings are open to the public.  Information about upcoming meetings, or agendas and minutes from prior meetings can be found on our website.  We will continue to post progress about our work and any other developments about indigent defense in Michigan on our website as well.