Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services
In Massachusetts, the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) oversees the state public defender system for indigent criminal defendants. Organization and responsibilities Some attorneys are public defenders employed by the Committee itself. Others are private criminal defense attorneys appointed by the courts to represent indigent defendants. CPCS has several divisions: a Private Counsel Division, a Public Defender division, a Youth Advocacy division, and a Mental Health Litigation Division. It also operates an Innocence Program representing those who are wrongfully convicted. In addition to overseeing public defense services for defendants at trial, the committee also assigns counsel to represent inmates in parole hearings. CPCS's main office is at 75 Federal Street, Boston. It has 20 regional offices across the commonwealth. History CPCS was established in 1983 by the Massachusetts Legislature in Chapter 673 of the Acts of 1983. It consolidated scattered previous programs including the Massachusetts Defenders Committee (MDC) (a public defender program established in 1960), the County Bar Advocate Program (a court-appointed counsel program affiliated with bar associations in most Massachusetts counties), and the Roxbury Defenders Committee (RDC), a private non-profit that worked in the Roxbury District Court and the Suffolk Superior Court. In 2008, CPCS had 253 staffers, with