On March 13, CDANY President Mark Funk was quoted in the New York Law Journal about Public Defense Funding, specifically about the need created by discovery reform. 

Public Defenders Lobby for Funding Parity With Prosecutors - Brian Lee

PDs are asking Albany lawmakers for $132 million, which they say would mirror the allocations provided to the district attorneys this year and last year for which no funds were provided to the defense. They are planning to converge on the New York Capitol on March 22.

March 13, 2023 

From The Article: 

"Mark Funk, president of the Chief Defenders Association of New York, said discovery issues are more acute for public defenders.

'I’m not minimizing what the DAs have to do—they have to provide the information to us,” Funk said. “But we have to review it, and not only review it, but then review it with our clients and discuss it with them so they can make intelligent decisions regarding their case.'

'I think the burden is even more acute for us because we have to sit through those hours of body-cam footage or hours of surveillance videos and things like that,' he said."

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