{"id":216502,"date":"2026-06-11T14:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T14:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216502\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T14:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T14:54:09","slug":"philadelphia-public-defenders-office-flat-funded-in-city-budget-forced-to-make-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216502\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia public defender\u2019s office flat-funded in city budget, forced to make cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Philadelphia\u2019s chief public defender, Keisha Hudson, says she will have to make some serious cuts because the mayor gave her office no additional funds in the city budget, unlike other criminal justice stakeholders. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn three budget cycles with Mayor Kenney, we were granted $15 million. In three budget cycles with Mayor Parker, we have been granted $1 million,\u201d said Hudson. \u201cWe are underfunded; we\u2019ve continually been underfunded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She asked for $5 million more to cover contractual salary increases for her unionized lawyers and staff, insurance premiums, and basic office functions. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are a critical part of the process, and to come out of this budget cycle as the only justice system agency that got no funding increase is remarkable to me,\u201d she said, \u201cand it is infuriating to me, given the importance of the work that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hudson said <a href=\"https:\/\/phillydefenders.org\/service-reduction\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">she will have to make cuts<\/a>: reduce staffing in courtrooms, cut vital diversion programs, and end monthly emergency bail hearings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not constitutionally obligated to do preliminary arraignments, not constitutionally obligated to do any diversion programming, including the mayor\u2019s wellness initiative,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The office handles about 70% of the cases that come through the courts. Last year, that was about 34,000 people, including 4,000 children, Hudson said. <\/p>\n<p>She said it\u2019s more expensive for those clients to have court-appointed attorneys, who are also paid, in part, by the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to now make very hard decisions, which are going to impact Black and brown clients who are poor in the city of Philadelphia,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for City Council President Kenyatta Johnson told KYW Newsradio that council \u201cadvocated for their budget priorities\u201d but didn\u2019t explain why it didn\u2019t go through. <\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the mayor said that under both the prior administration and Parker\u2019s administration, the Defender Association of Philadelphia had a nearly 45% increase in its budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Philadelphia\u2019s chief public defender, Keisha Hudson, says she will have to make some serious&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[222,35226,69,71,70,66359],"class_list":["post-216502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-budget","tag-city-of-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-public-defender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}