Major funding for this podcast has been provided by Public Welfare Foundation and the Pulitzer Center.

Hey, y'all, you're about to listen to Episode 4 in a five-part series. If you didn't start from the beginning,

trust me, it's going to make a lot more sense if you stop right here and go back to episode one.

We've got 16,000 public defenders who are mad as hell,

and they're not going to do it anymore.

That's Steve Hanlon.

He's a lawyer who spent his career fighting systems for violating civil rights,

and now he's trained his eye on the failures

in the public defender's system in America.

This is a disease, and it's going on for 50 years.

We've told you about some of the consequences for the clients in this system. But there are

real consequences for public defenders, too. Long hours, low pay, and the feeling that they're constantly failing the people they're trying to help.

And the stress of the job is crushing them.

It hardens me up in a way that is uncomfortable.

The only way that I feel like I can go through it mentally and emotionally

is by dismissing certain functions of my job. And the reason for that is because if I don't,

the emotional drain is impossible.

This has been public defense for decades, suffering from the same chronic issues.

Too many clients, not enough lawyers, and despite dire warnings, not enough funding.

At some point when you get your face rubbed in the mud enough, you've got to stand a fight back.

In the last few years, Steve has been trying to fight back, and for many reasons, he's taken that fight to Missouri.

Missouri is the epicenter of this whole movement to end this abandonment of the rule of law.

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