In June 10, 2015, the New York Times carried a story of Dominick Torrence, a Black American resident of Baltimore who was charged with disorderly conduct and riot in the night when a fellow Black, Freddie Gray, was fatally shot while in police custody. Obviously this is an injustice that was rightfully met with civil disobedience. He was order to pay a bail of $250,000, same amount as the two white police officers facing the murder charge over Gray’s death. For all intents and purposes, his case can be viewed as a petty offense yet the bail sum required is for an attempted murder or murder charge. He will definitely require the help of public defender because it almost obvious that he would not raise the legal fees. Public defenders have the inordinate task of representing such cases in courts of law and seeking justice, especially in instances of abuse of the judicial process or bias. The main claim of this discussion is that the working conditions and the salaries of the public defenders need to be increased and enhanced as a sustainable solution to the problems of unfair criminal justice system that is skewed against the poor. Nowadays, more and more people especially from the poor social groups accused of crime are increasingly facing abuse of the criminal, and investigatory prosecutorial powers. This means that people from poor segment of the society face unfair justice system increasingly. In order to fight this, States in the US have established offices of public defenders who offer judicial defense to the poor who are subject to criminal proceedings before courts of law. This is a noble effort. However, there is need to support the public legal defense because unless protected, the poor are subject to exploitation and prejudice at the hands of the privilege. All of us, therefore, have an ethical duty to support the public defenders by increasing their salary. The sub-claim herein is that the features of unfair attitude towards the poor people are considered to be crucial and they are obliged to be taken into consideration for the purpose of improving the justice system. Moreover, in the publication ‘Just mercy: a story of justice and redemption’, the problem of inappropriate attitude towards this category of people in the sphere of criminal justice is described in the following way. Importantly that the author points out about juvenile incarceration and why it affects in most cases the individuals with low income. The increase of the salary for the public lawyers will be the best solution to this problem due to sufficient protection of the poor people. This aspect is helpful because in the previous practices the number of unfair imprisonment had been decreased by 23% (Stevenson 3) As a matter of fact, it appears that all these aspects play a crucial role in the process of implementing appropriate measurements that might secure the poor in the sphere of conducting the fair judicial process. On the example of the USA, in this art.

1. In June 10, 2015, the New York Times carried a story of
Dominick Torrence, a Black American resident of Baltimore
who was charged with disorderly conduct and riot in the night
when a fellow Black, Freddie Gray, was fatally shot while in
police custody. Obviously this is an injustice that was
rightfully met with civil disobedience. He was order to pay a
bail of $250,000, same amount as the two white police officers
facing the murder charge over Gray’s death. For all intents and
purposes, his case can be viewed as a petty offense yet the bail
sum required is for an attempted murder or murder charge. He
will definitely require the help of public defender because it
almost obvious that he would not raise the legal fees. Public
defenders have the inordinate task of representing such cases in
courts of law and seeking justice, especially in instances of
abuse of the judicial process or bias.
The main claim of this discussion is that the working conditions
and the salaries of the public defenders need to be increased and
enhanced as a sustainable solution to the problems of unfair
criminal justice system that is skewed against the poor.
Nowadays, more and more people especially from the poor
social groups accused of crime are increasingly facing abuse of
the criminal, and investigatory prosecutorial powers. This
means that people from poor segment of the society face unfair
justice system increasingly. In order to fight this, States in the
US have established offices of public defenders who offer
judicial defense to the poor who are subject to criminal
proceedings before courts of law. This is a noble effort.
However, there is need to support the public legal defense
because unless protected, the poor are subject to exploitation
and prejudice at the hands of the privilege. All of us, therefore,
have an ethical duty to support the public defenders by
increasing their salary.
The sub-claim herein is that the features of unfair attitude
towards the poor people are considered to be crucial and they

2. are obliged to be taken into consideration for the purpose of
improving the justice system. Moreover, in the publication
‘Just mercy: a story of justice and redemption’, the problem of
inappropriate attitude towards this category of people in the
sphere of criminal justice is described in the following way.
Importantly that the author points out about juvenile
incarceration and why it affects in most cases the individuals
with low income. The increase of the salary for the public
lawyers will be the best solution to this problem due to
sufficient protection of the poor people. This aspect is helpful
because in the previous practices the number of unfair
imprisonment had been decreased by 23% (Stevenson 3) As a
matter of fact, it appears that all these aspects play a crucial
role in the process of implementing appropriate measurements
that might secure the poor in the sphere of conducting the fair
judicial process.
On the example of the USA, in this article, this problem was
explained with the reasons that indicate the notions of
insecurity in the court system. As a result, the author provides
with the elements that prove the idea of a high possibility of
incarcerated of the poor people due to a lack of financial
income and insecurity in the American society (Stevenson 4).
Conversely, it is worthy of notice that during the period of
1985-90, the government adopted the useful policies in this area
that might protect the security of the poor. As a consequence, it
appears that: “The minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor
Standards Act of 1938 had been repealed by inflation and he
elimination of extreme poverty is not seriously debatable”
(Burkhauser, p. 2). It seems that current system of protection
the poor people in the judicial system is quite low and
government spend much money on the issues of increasing the
number of the personnel in police and low quality of judicial
system. In fact, it proves the issue that minimum wages should
be increased for the poor: “The reason for this is because most
minimum wage workers who gain from an increase in the
minimum wage do not live in poor or even in near poor

3. families” (Burkhauser, p.3). Taking into account this aspect, it
appears that the level of protection in the judicial system of the
poor is supposed to be quite low and for this reason, this aspect
is obliged to be improved. In addition, prejudices that may be
noticed in the society towards this category of people is
unprotected due to low income.
The second sub-claim regards the ethical duty of the society.
society have an immense duty as a matter of ethics to ensure
that the poor ate defended within the means of the law. Due to
the fact that not everyone can sponsor the legal fees incurred by
this class of people in court, ensuring that the public defenders
are well remunerated is an ethical responsibility. Increasing the
remuneration and benefit packages for the public defense
attorneys need to be enhanced. This will help address the
personal welfare deficiencies that these lawyers face. When
they are well paid, their families well taken care of, and their
social class improved, they will have no conflict of interest and
serve their clients will undivided attention. As is it now, the
lawyers have the feeling that giving mostly pro bono service to
the poor is disadvantaging them because they can alternatively
offer themselves to other competitive and financially rewarding
cases and clients. Further, this makes the public defenders feel
out maneuvered by others who do not offer service to the poor.
Stemmed conflict of interest and undivided attention are
imperative dividends that enhancing the pay for the public
lawyers will bring to the poor.
Further, as a society, we must be genuinely concerned by the
living standard of the public defenders because they play a vital
role in the rolling the wheel of justice. Besides, dispensing
justice with utmost fairness, within reasonable time frame, and
with reasonable affordability is an important principle of justice
in the United States. Further, as a society, we understand that
the poor are not in their state by choice. These two reasons form
immense ethical and moral obligation to the society to ensure
that the poor are given justice. Paying the public defenders a
descent pay is also an ethical and moral responsibility by the

4. extension of the one to the poor.
The third sub-claim relates to how the proposed solution will
solve this problem. The solution of increasing salary for the
public defenders is appropriate in the case of lowering the
number of injustice towards the poor. Taking into consideration
all these aspects, it is worthy of notice that the aspects of
inappropriate cases that occur in the judicial system are unfair.
This notion is explained with the discrimination that leads to
the process of increasing the unemployment rate in this area. In
the article ‘The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of
colorblindness’, the issue of injustice towards the poor category
of people is investigated. As a matter of fact, it is essential to
add that the aspects of high rates on the process of
imprisonment in the USA among people who come from the
low-income group of the American society (Alexander). This
notion is supposed to be crucial in this area as far as most of
them could not pay for the advocates and defend themselves in a
proper way. In this situation, it seems that the measurement of
increasing the support from the state side is obliged to be
introduced in order to improve the conditions of security among
the poor. It is worthy of notice that the judicial system has the
following feature as: “A $10.10 minimum wage costs families
with incomes six times the poverty line or more $17 billion”
(Burkhauser, p. 5). Moreover, this aspect is not taken into
consideration in a proper way due to the inappropriate
measurements that were implemented in the past years. The
policy that ensures the payment for the services of the advocate
is considered to be not well-developed. In addition, it is
essential to add that the aspect of evictions faced a lot of people
from the poor background. Furthermore, this notion is essential
in the process of investigating the cases about inappropriate
judgement of people who had the problems and were injailed in
the prison in the unfair way (Desmond). Thus, this problem
should be resolved at the state level.
Conclusion
The society has the immense responsibility of ensuring that the

5. poor are cushioned from the abuse of the investigatory and
prosecutorial privileges in the criminal justice system. As has
been demonstrated, the justice system is immense expensive and
hence skewed against the poor. Public defenders, therefore,
forms an integral part of the wheel of justice. They help the
poor access justice irrespective of their social class. Supporting
these public lawyers through increased pay and benefit packages
is an ethical duty of the society. This will enable them have
undivided attention and live a decent and a dignified life beside
stemming possible conflict of interest. As a result, it might
decrease the level of unfair imprisonment of people with low
income in the United States of America. Thus, the increase of
the salary for the public defenders might be appropriate in this
situation.
Works Cited
Alexander, Michelle. "The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in
the age of colorblindness." (2010): 1-25.
Burkhauser, Richard. "Why Minimum Wage Increases Are A
Poor Way To Help The Working Poor?". IZA Policy Paper 86
(2014): n. pag. Print.
Desmond, Matthew. “Forced Out: For Many Poor Americans
Eviction Never Ends.” New Yorker, 2016.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/08/forced-out.
Accessed November 9, 2016.
Dewan, Shaila. When Bail Is Out of Defendant’s Reach, Other
Costs Mount. New York Times. JUNE 10, 2015
Pfaff, John.“A mockery of Justice for the Poor.” New York
Times, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/opinion/a-
mockery-of-justice-for-the-poor.html. Accessed November 9,
2016.
Stevenson, Bryan. Just mercy: a story of justice and redemption.
New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2015. Print: 3-26