NCJ Number
91081
Date Published
1983
Length
30 pages
Annotation
The basic measure of a defender agency's ability to deliver service is its productivity, defined as the ratio of output to man-hours, and this paper examines each of the essential elements of productivity to highlight measurement criteria and data requirements.
Abstract
With adequate staffing and funding, a defender agency's productivity would best be served through an allocation plan that assigns cases according to attorneys' experience and workloads, estimated by the amount of effort required over a given time to bring cases to disposition. An ideal organization plan would be one that reflects the dispositional patterns of the caseload, trials, pleas, dismissals, quick actions, and partial services. The ideal measures of performance under these conditions would be productivity ratios and weighted dispositions. The first should monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the agency and the level of services it is providing; the second should determine whether the dispositions being achieved meet the standards set by the public defender. The steps yet to be taken in developing a system of productivity measurement for defender agencies include introducing the concept of quality with respect to output so that levels of service can be assessed for adequacy. For the input side of the productivity ratio, AMICUS has removed one of the most formidable barriers to productivity measurement, namely, implementing time accounting systems. AMICUS provides valuable information about attorney effort and workload and supports the measurement of an agency's productivity. What is still missing from the input perspective is a systematic study of the factors and attributes that move cases to disposition by jury trial, bench trial, or plea bargaining. Forty-one references and an author's index are provided.