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Gideon’S Army And The Central Theme Of Poverty, Cara H. Drinan

Scholarly Articles

Gideon’s Army, a powerful documentary film that follows the work of three public defenders in the South, provides a window into the well documented dysfunction of most public defender offices across the country. While following the life and work of these public defenders—Travis Williams, Brandy Alexander, and June Hardwick—the viewer sees what the academic literature has documented for decades: public defenders carry caseloads that are multiples of professional guidelines; compensation for public defenders is so paltry that many are barely making ends meet; the offices in which they work are resource-starved; guilty pleas are the default; and the public …