States and localities have developed and largely funded their own indigent defense systems. To do so, they have generally adopted one or more of the following methods for providing indigent defense—employing full or part-time public defenders to handle the bulk of cases requiring counsel; entering into contracts with private attorneys, often after a bidding contest, to provide counsel; or developing a list, or “panel,” of private attorneys who accept a predetermined fixed rate and from which the court appoints as defense counsel when needed. Further, depending on the state, funding for the indigent defense system is provided by the state, localities within the state, or a combination of state and local funding. According to DOJ, as of its most recent census of public defender offices issued in 2007, 22 states have established statewide—and state funded—public defender agencies to provide indigent defense in which a central office oversees the operations, policies, and practices of all public defender offices located in the state. In another 27 states, local jurisdictions—largely counties—are responsible for providing and, in whole or in part, funding, indigent defense services. The remaining state funds 100 percent of its indigent defense services, which are provided by assigned counsel, but does not have city, county, or state public defender offices. Unlike states, tribes—which retain limited, inherent sovereignty—are not bound by restraints placed upon the federal or state governments through the Bill of Rights or other amendments to the U.S. Constitution, including the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel provision. However, the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 (ICRA), as amended, limits the extent to which tribes may exercise their powers of self-government by imposing conditions on tribal governments similar to those found in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. For example, ICRA extends the protections of free speech, free exercise of religion, and due process and equal protection under tribal laws. Among other protections afforded under ICRA, tribes must also afford a defendant the right to be represented by counsel at his or her own expense, and, as amended, the right to be provided counsel at the tribe’s expense if a sentence of imprisonment for more than 1 year is sought. DOJ and, in the case of tribes, DOI are the primary federal agencies that play a role in supporting indigent defense. First, DOJ, as the agency responsible for ensuring the fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans, works to provide support to all participants in the justice system. Further, in a June 2010 speech before a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the rights of individuals in North Carolina, the Attorney General identified a crisis in the criminal defense system, and stated the department’s commitment to focusing on indigent defense issues and developing and implementing solutions. Within DOJ, two components provide services that could support indigent defense providers, the Access to Justice Initiative (ATJ) and the Office of Justice Programs (OJP). Established in March 2010 to address criminal and civil access to justice issues, ATJ is charged with helping the justice system efficiently deliver outcomes that are fair and accessible to all, irrespective of wealth and status. ATJ staff work within DOJ, across federal agencies, and with state, local, and tribal justice system stakeholders to increase access to counsel and legal assistance and to improve the justice delivery systems that serve people who are unable to afford lawyers. According to DOJ, ATJ is comprised of seven staff and, in fiscal year 2011, had a budget of $1.27 million. ATJ staff focused their efforts on indigent defense as well as a range of pressing criminal and civil access to justice issues, including foreclosure and veterans’ affairs. OJP works in partnership with the federal, state, local, and tribal justice communities—which include indigent defense providers—to identify the most pressing crime-related challenges confronting the justice system; to provide training, coordination, and innovative strategies and approaches for addressing these challenges; and to provide grant funding for implementing these strategies. Within OJP, several bureaus provide research, technical assistance, and funding that could support indigent defense providers. Specifically, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) seeks to provide objective, independent, evidence-based knowledge and tools to meet criminal justice challenges, particularly at the state and local levels. Among other things, NIJ funds research and development, assesses programs and policies, and publicizes its findings. In addition, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) serves as DOJ’s primary statistical agency, collecting, analyzing, publishing, and disseminating information on criminal justice systems. Finally, both the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) provide training, technical assistance, and grant funding designed to enhance and support the criminal and juvenile justice systems, respectively. Such funding may be awarded through formula grants, which are awarded on a noncompetitive basis generally using statutorily defined calculations, or discretionary grants, for which applicants generally compete for funding. Second, within DOI, BIA is responsible for supporting tribes in their efforts to ensure public safety and administer justice as well as to provide related services directly to, or through contracts or compacts with, federally- recognized tribes.law enforcement, detention, and tribal court programs. In addition, the Division of Tribal Justice Support for Courts within BIA’s Office of Justice Services works with tribes to establish and maintain tribal judicial systems. This includes conducting assessments of tribal courts and providing training and technical assistance on a range of topics, including establishing or updating law and order codes. Further, tribal courts may receive funding through BIA’s TPA. All federally-recognized tribes are eligible to receive TPA funds—either through contracts or compacts—for operating tribal programs and, in general, these funds are available for use to provide basic tribal services, such as social services, child welfare, natural resources management, and tribal courts. DOJ and BIA provide funding, training, and technical assistance that could support indigent defense, which may help to address challenges that public defenders face. Specifically, public defender offices or agencies that responded to our survey most frequently reported that obtaining adequate funding (75 of 106, or 71 percent) and providing appropriate compensation for their attorneys (77 of 107 or 72 percent) were extremely or very challenging to the ability of their office or agency to provide indigent defense services.respondent explained that their office’s best attorneys leave to pursue positions offering higher compensation. For instance, one survey DOJ makes funding available through formula and discretionary grants that could be used for indigent defense. Specifically, we identified 13 grant programs that DOJ administered from fiscal years 2005 through 2010 that recipients could use for this purpose. Three of these programs—the John R. Justice Program (JRJ), Capital Case Litigation Initiative (CCLI), and Juvenile Indigent Defense National Clearinghouse Grant (JIDNC)—required recipients to allocate or use funding for indigent defense, either because of its authorizing statute or requirements that DOJ set in its grant solicitation. In addition, a fourth program—the Wrongful Conviction Review Program (WCR)—limits eligibility for funding to nonprofit organizations, as well as public defender offices, that represent convicted defendants (who are, according to DOJ, indigent) in claims of innocence. As a result, for the purposes of our review, we consider the WRC grant to require that funding be used for indigent defense. See table 1 for a description of the DOJ grant programs that require that funding be used for indigent defense. DOJ also administered nine grant programs from fiscal years 2005 through 2010 that recipients could choose to allocate or award to indigent defense, but were not required to do so. In five of these nine programs— the JAG, JABG, Tribal Juvenile Accountability Discretionary Grant (TJADG), Byrne Competitive Grant Program, and the Tribal Civil and Criminal Legal Assistance Grant (TCCLA)—DOJ identified indigent defense as a priority or specific purpose of the grant. It did so by identifying indigent defense either as a purpose area, a stated priority in its grant solicitation, a specific category in the grant, or as a national initiative. According to DOJ, it established indigent defense as a priority to encourage spending in this area. See tables 2 and 3 for a description of the DOJ grant programs that do not require funding to be used for indigent defense, although recipients can use funds for such purposes. In addition, we determined that BIA funding could be used for indigent defense. According to BIA officials, if tribes choose to use BIA funding for this purpose, this funding would come from the tribes’ Tribal Courts TPA, which are distributed pursuant to contracts or compacts.contracts and compacts, tribes, rather than BIA, determine the best use of their funds. BIA does not specify requirements for spending levels on particular tribal court services, including indigent defense, because the Through nature of tribal sovereignty precludes BIA from placing requirements on how tribes spend their TPA funding. Tribes allocated a total of approximately $22 million through their Tribal Court TPA in each fiscal year from 2005 through 2010. Further, within DOJ, BJA announced a new solicitation in April 2012 that focuses on helping indigent defense systems adhere to principles established by the American Bar Association (ABA) for public defense delivery systems. These principles, approved in 2002, were created as a practical guide for those creating and funding new, or improving existing, public defense delivery systems. The principles include the fundamental criteria necessary to design a system that provides effective, efficient, high-quality, ethical legal representation for indigent defendants in which defenders have no conflicts of interest, such as representing two defendants in the same case. According to DOJ, BJA will award $1.4 million of new discretionary grant funding to support projects that help make achievement of these principles a reality.