Public Defender Shortage Forces Massachusetts to Release Defendants from Overcrowded Jails

Four criminal defendants were released from a Boston jail on Monday because they had not had access to a lawyer for more than seven days. The releases stem from an ongoing work stoppage among court-appointed defense attorneys and a growing shortage of lawyers willing to take on indigent criminal cases.

The individuals released include two defendants facing drug distribution charges, one accused of assault and battery by strangulation, and another charged with receiving stolen property. Among them was Daishaun Lawrence, who expressed frustration over being jailed without representation.

“I got arrested and I had no legal aid,” Lawrence said after his release. “I was really, really frustrated because I lost a lot,” he added, noting that he lost his job at Target while detained. He believes he would have been released sooner if he’d had an attorney.

The releases were ordered under the Lavallee Protocol, a procedure enacted last week by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Under this protocol, if an indigent defendant has not been assigned a lawyer within seven days of arraignment, they must be released from custody. If after 45 days they still do not have legal counsel, their charges can be dismissed without prejudice—meaning prosecutors could refile them later.

The root of the current crisis lies in a work stoppage that began shortly after Memorial Day. Most court-appointed defense cases in Massachusetts are not handled by full-time public defenders. Approximately 80 percent of these cases are covered by bar advocates—private attorneys who take on state-assigned cases alongside their private practices.

For over a month, these bar advocates have been participating in a grassroots work stoppage to protest low pay and unsustainable workloads. The action has left the already under-resourced public defenders with the burden of trying to cover all cases across the state.

“This has clearly reached a critical stage. It’s reached an emergency stage,” said Elyse Hershon, a criminal defense attorney and bar advocate. “We need to fix this in order to keep qualified lawyers in this practice and to attract more people into the field.”

With so many attorneys unavailable, the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS)—the state’s public defense agency—has been forced to triage. CPCS attorneys are prioritizing the most serious and high-risk cases, leaving others, such as lower-level drug charges, to be temporarily unrepresented.

Rebecca Jacobstein of CPCS described the situation as dire. “It’s really awful for everybody. Our staff attorneys—they are working so hard.”

The strain is showing in the courts. During Monday’s hearings, Boston Municipal Court Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons voiced frustration after learning that defense counsel still could not be found for some defendants. “You’re reporting to the court that not one private counsel will take this case?” she asked. “That’s correct,” a CPCS representative replied.

The Lavallee hearings will continue as long as there are defendants without counsel. Additional hearings are scheduled to begin in Middlesex County on Wednesday, with more releases likely if representation gaps persist.

This crisis highlights a growing concern in Massachusetts: the right to legal representation is only as strong as the infrastructure that supports it. Until systemic changes are made to address compensation and recruitment for court-appointed defense attorneys, the state will remain in a constitutional and humanitarian bind.

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