Felony Incarceration Differences by Socioeconomic Status - Defense Attorney Type

This chart shows the percentage of felony cases that resulted in an incarceration sentence among individuals represented by a public defender or a private lawyer. Having a public defender is a proxy measure of low socioeconomic status. This indicator helps determine whether incarceration is equally distributed across defendants.

Incarceration includes any jail sentence (with or without probation), community corrections, or prison. Cases grouped by most serious conviction charge and disposition date. This includes cases in which an individual was either entirely represented by a public defender or entirely represented by a private lawyer for the duration of their case. Any case with a mix of representation (public and private) is excluded. Furthermore, it is not possible to identify which private attorneys may be Alternate Defense Counsel (ADC) attorneys (attorneys assigned due to conflict of interest).
Source: Prosecutorial Performance Indicators PPI 8.7Get the data