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Conducted during 1999-2000, this survey represented the first systematic study of indigent criminal defense services by BJS since the 1980s. The study collected indigent criminal defense data at the trial level for (1) the 100 most populous counties in the United States, (2) 197 counties outside of the 100 most populous counties, and (3) states that entirely funded criminal indigent defense services. Information obtained includes...

The Census of Public Defender Offices (CPDO) involves the collection of data from all state- and county-funded public defender offices across the country, including offices that are publicly funded but privately operated and offices that handle capital cases only. These public defender offices handle the largest proportion of indigent defense cases of the three major indigent defense delivery systems: public defender offices, assigned counsel systems...

In 2013, the National Survey of Indigent Defense Systems (NSIDS) was designed as a census of all forms of indigent defense public defender, contract counsel, and assigned or appointed counsel in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Indigent defense was characterized as state-administered (one or two central offices directing indigent defense for the entire state) or county-administered (each county provides and administers indigent...