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I don't think it would be unreasonable to require that every prosecutor have worked for 2+ years as a public defender. Helps with the shortage of public defende

by wfo 11y ago

I don't think it would be unreasonable to require that every prosecutor have worked for 2+ years as a public defender. Helps with the shortage of public defenders as well.

dragonwriter 11y ago
> I don't think it would be unreasonable to require that every prosecutor have worked for 2+ years as a public defender. There may be a serious problem with quality of representation if a substantial portion of the people working as public defenders are doing it to meet a checkbox on the way to their planned career as public prosecutors.
- ScottBurson 11y ago
  There's a serious problem with quality of representation already. Simply having more public defenders seems likely to me to help, even if some of them aren't as emotionally committed to the job as others. There's also the possibility that someone who starts out just checking a box will discover that there are more shades of gray in these situations than they had realized.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    If you want more public defenders, just fund the public defenders offices better, so that they can pay more lawyers, and pay each of them better. No need to compel people who want to be prosecutors act as public defenders. Just arrange the economic incentives properly.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
- wfo 11y ago
  I don't think so. I think generally the A-type lawyers on their way to be prosecutors are primarily interested in winning at all costs no matter how it effects others (why else be a prosecutor?). If someone is the kind of person who wants to be a prosecutor a losing record is a losing record -- you hate it with all of your being no matter the reason. Why not have society leverage that attitude by making them win protecting lives instead of destroying them for a little while? Plus the entire point of the idea is to forcibly inject empathy into them so they are a little more careful and judicious with the enormous amount of unquestioned power they will one day wield.

by wfo 11y ago

I don't think it would be unreasonable to require that every prosecutor have worked for 2+ years as a public defender. Helps with the shortage of public defenders as well.

dragonwriter 11y ago

> I don't think it would be unreasonable to require that every prosecutor have worked for 2+ years as a public defender. There may be a serious problem with quality of representation if a substantial portion of the people working as public defenders are doing it to meet a checkbox on the way to their planned career as public prosecutors.

ScottBurson 11y ago
There's a serious problem with quality of representation already. Simply having more public defenders seems likely to me to help, even if some of them aren't as emotionally committed to the job as others. There's also the possibility that someone who starts out just checking a box will discover that there are more shades of gray in these situations than they had realized.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  If you want more public defenders, just fund the public defenders offices better, so that they can pay more lawyers, and pay each of them better. No need to compel people who want to be prosecutors act as public defenders. Just arrange the economic incentives properly.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
wfo 11y ago
I don't think so. I think generally the A-type lawyers on their way to be prosecutors are primarily interested in winning at all costs no matter how it effects others (why else be a prosecutor?). If someone is the kind of person who wants to be a prosecutor a losing record is a losing record -- you hate it with all of your being no matter the reason. Why not have society leverage that attitude by making them win protecting lives instead of destroying them for a little while? Plus the entire point of the idea is to forcibly inject empathy into them so they are a little more careful and judicious with the enormous amount of unquestioned power they will one day wield.