The Oregon Public Defense Commission’s interim executive director, Ken Sanchagrin, has released a plan to significantly reduce the number of unrepresented defendants while focusing on counties with the highest unrepresented numbers and building on current efforts.
OPDC’s multipronged, 12-month proposal outlines strategies to increase the public defense system’s capacity to take cases. Actions would facilitate the hiring of newly graduated lawyers, strengthen oversight of contracts, encourage collaboration with public safety partners, and compensate experienced attorneys for voluntarily taking cases beyond their contractual caseload if they have the capacity.
“This plan reflects the urgency with which OPDC is working to ensure that every eligible individual has access to timely and adequate legal representation,” Sanchagrin said. “As champions of the Sixth Amendment, we are committed to protecting the constitutional rights of all Oregonians.”
OPDC’s governing board approved the actions in the plan during its monthly meeting in May. The plan builds on successful programs, such as OPDC’s Oregon Trial Division, which includes stateemployed public defenders.
While some actions, like better enforcement of contracts, are solely the responsibility of OPDC, others, such as early resolution dockets, will require the collaboration of public safety partners, including the courts and district attorneys. OPDC has been aggressively targeting in-custody, unrepresented individuals, which has resulted in a 30% reduction since Jan. 1, 2025.
As of May 30, 2025, there were 119 in-custody, unrepresented persons in Oregon. Much of that reduction has resulted from the work of OPDC’s trial division. Its three offices have taken more than 2,200 cases since the agency hired its first attorney in December 2023. Combined, these offices are surpassing caseload limits known as maximum attorney caseload (MAC).
Building on the progress already made, the action plan envisions expanding the trial division into a geographically nimble strike team that deploys attorneys to counties with a need. OPDC has already done that in Coos County. To offset a shortage of public defenders, in November 2024, OPDC sent one of its Salem-based lawyers to Coos County for a yearlong assignment. Coos County has subsequently seen the number of out-of-custody individuals fall by nearly a quarter.
OPDC’s offices are also collaborating with local partners to find solutions. For example, in Jackson County, the agency worked with the court and district attorney to create an early disposition program that focuses on low-level misdemeanors and provides defendants with the opportunity to resolve their cases at arraignment. Now, OPDC is partnering with the district attorney and court there to establish a DUII diversion docket and a probation violation docket, both of which would focus on clients on the unrepresented list.
In Marion County, OPDC teamed up with the district attorney and court to create RESTORE Court, which allows certain offenders with substance abuse issues to bypass the traditional court process and enter probation with treatment. And in Coos County, OPDC joined with the court and district attorney to start a monthly unrepresented resolution docket.
Since taking the helm of OPDC on April 17, Director Sanchagrin has been meeting with staff and partners, including judges, legislators, public defense providers, and OPDC’s commissioners, to understand the state’s unmet representation needs. He also appeared before a legislative subcommittee in May for an informational meeting about unrepresented defendants.
Director Sanchagrin then developed the solutions in the plan, which fulfills an April request from Gov. Tina Kotek, based on his conversations, the agency’s prior work, and his knowledge of the public defense system from his tenure as the executive director of Oregon’s Criminal Justice Commission. In the coming months, he will work with OPDC, legislators, public safety partners, and providers of public defense services to implement the plan and end the current state of the high number of defendants who are unrepresented.
Source: Oregon Public Defense Commission