European Seminars on the Economics of Crime (ESEC)

The majority of felony cases in the United States involve indigent clients represented by publicly financed attorneys. In this paper, we examine the effects of efforts to improve representation for economically disadvantaged defendants through the adoption of managed indigent defense offices (MIDs) in the state of Texas. MIDs impose a layer of oversight and accountability on attorneys providing indigent defense services. Taking advantage of the staggered roll-out of MIDs across Texas counties and newly compiled administrative arrest and prison records, we show that management can reduce conviction rates, with impacts growing over time. Simultaneous changes in observed sentences suggest that directly employed lawyers are less likely to enter guilty pleas for low-level offenses, while effective supervision of contracted lawyers may induce more effort in serious cases.