Success Story

Public Defense Brings Hope for Poor

USAID/DR supported the creation and expansion of the country’s first a Public Defense System

Paula, a mother of 5, was arrested and detained for assault after she helped a neighbor defend herself from an abusive husband. Traditionally in the Dominican Republic, a person in her situation would be detained for months waiting for a trial that would come only if she managed to get representation from the few existing state-paid volunteer lawyers.

This tradition is changing. The country’s new criminal procedures code stipulates that detainees must have an initial hearing within 24 hours of detention. After 4 days without an initial hearing and without the means to pay for a lawyer, someone told Paula about her right to request a public defender. The public defender managed to get a hearing before a judge, followed up on her case and secured her release within 2 weeks. “If it wasn’t for my public defender, I’d still be sitting in jail and my kids would be without a mom.”

Free legal aide existed in the Dominican Republic since 1993, but with limited availability. USAID supported the development of a national public defense office by first promoting debates and building consensus with local judges and law makers about the need for the service. With the judicial community in agreement, the legal foundation and internal organizational structure of the national public defense system were developed and instituted in 2003.

Today the National Public Defense Office includes 76 public defenders, 11 judicial investigators, 7 social workers and 10 offices throughout the country.  As of July, 2005, over 12,500 persons with limited incomes have received free legal assistance, having access to justice that they did not have before. 

USAID´s current strategic focus is to strengthen the institution by facilitating sustainable growth of the national office to meet increased demand for the service. This is shown by support in strategic planning and administration of the national system, as well as the training of more defenders, social workers and investigators for the new offices opening in cities across the country.

Elizabeth, the public defender who assisted Paula in her case, says that through her experience as one of the first public defenders in the country, “I have become much more sensitive to the situation of so many individuals who are accused of crimes and are jailed for long periods of time without the benefit of the constitutional right to legal assistance because they simply don’t have the money.”  ”The knowledge that we have received (through the initial public defender training program) about the way the system should work and the rights all people have to a proper defense is put to use through the Public Defense service and is available to all citizens,” she says.