Navigation Prosecutors, public defenders face case backlogs and smaller budgets
Faced with a growing backlog of cases because of, among other things, an inability to have jury trials, Florida’s state attorneys and public defenders are also having their budgets restricted.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, responding to lower state revenues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, has instituted a 1.5% per quarter — or a 6% annual — budget holdback for executive branch agencies, which includes the prosecutors’ and defenders’ offices.
The budget holdbacks do not affect the courts, although other agencies including the Offices of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel and the Capital Collateral Regional Counsels fall under the stricture.
