(gentle music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed."

I'm Paris Jackson.

Counties say they cannot continue to pay for public defense without more state support.

In fact, they've sued the state over it, arguing Washington is shirking its constitutional responsibility, while the state says local governments are responsible for paying for the public safety policies they enact.

Cascade PBS investigative multimedia reporter Jaelynn Grisso went to Yakima County to learn more about the lawsuit and other efforts to increase funding.

- [Jaelynn] In the state of Washington, counties split the bill for the vast majority of public defense costs.

But for some, like Yakima County Commissioner LaDon Linde, that equates to an unfunded mandate that many counties say they cannot meet.

- It really needs attention, and we need, well, we need state help, hence the reason why all 39 counties said yes, we need to sue the state and get some help.

- The current funding model heavily relies on local funding, ultimately creating a patchwork for public defense that some call justice by geography.

In addition to the lawsuit by the counties, lawmakers introduced several bills this legislative session to try to increase state funding, but none made it out of committee.

- The system is in crisis, and it has been for some time.

In fact, in different legislative findings, the Supreme Court, you know, pretty much everyone has said that Washington's public defense system is in crisis currently.

Now, that's for one basic reason, and that's funding.

- [Jaelynn] The Washington State Association of Counties represents counties in the lawsuit and is backing several public defense funding bills this session.

Interim executive director Derek Young, says the goal of the lawsuit is to create a mandate for the state to fully fund public defense, similar to the State Supreme Court's McCleary decision on education.

- So, Washington State is unusual amongst the states in that it pays for almost nothing out for the system, so most of that cost is born locally.

Now, obviously across the state, different counties have different tax bases, and so if you're trying to provide a constitutional right with the very limited funding that comes to counties and basing that on, you know, their ability to pay for that, you're gonna run into problems.

- [Jaelynn] Young says counties are responsible for 97% of public defense costs, with the state covering about 3%.

Washington is among a minority of states that rely on mostly local funding for public defense, according to the nonprofit Sixth Amendment Center.

The remaining states primarily cover the cost at the state level or share the costs.

As for the lawsuit, the state argues that covering more of the cost does not guarantee protection of constitutional rights, according to court documents.

They point to Oregon, where costs are mostly covered by the state, but Oregon itself is seeing its own public defense crisis.

In a comment to Cascade PBS, a spokesperson for the Attorney General's office, which represents the state, said, quote, "The Attorney General's office strongly supports adequate funding for public defense.

The question in this case is simply whether the local governments or the Legislature should cover that cost.

For over a century, the Legislature has made the policy decision that local governments should have primary responsibility for the decisions and funding of criminal prosecutions and defense.

It's this office's role to defend that decision."

But for Linde, asking the state for more funding only seems fair.

- We think it's very fair to say that if you're going to mandate that the counties are responsible for trying these cases, that we get some appropriate state funding to help us do the job.

- [Jaelynn] Jaelynn Grisso, Cascade PBS.

- I'm Paris Jackson.

Thank you for watching "The Newsfeed," your destination for nonprofit Northwest news.

Go to cascadepbs.org for more great local coverage.

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