VICE (2013) s05e17 Episode Script

1 (theme music playing) Shane Smith: This week on "Vice," the functional breakdown of our judicial system.
Unfortunately, you almost have to pick and choose some of the cases that you spend the most amount of time on.
Cord Jefferson: Have any of you met with your public defenders yet? We've talked to you more than we've talked to our lawyers in a year.
Smith: And then, the ongoing conflict over resources in the jungles of Peru.
(whistling) It looks like the battlefields of World War I.
It's brutal.
(speaking Spanish) Go, go, go! Man: We are not animals! The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world.
And a staggering 80% of criminal defendants are represented by court-appointed public defenders.
Now, public defenders, in many cases, are woefully overworked, not being able to get to see their clients for months.
Reporter: In Louisiana, a massive shortage of public defenders is leaving many defendants in jail with their cases in limbo.
Missouri's public defender's office was already woefully understaffed and underfunded.
So, we sent Cord Jefferson to Missouri to see what affect this breakdown is having on our judicial system.
(beeps) So this is the docket for the courtroom we're about to go into.
It's well over a hundred cases, and this is just one docket for one courtroom, and there's 15 other courtrooms in this building.
Eighty percent of these people are gonna be represented by public defenders.
It's so crowded in here.
(man speaking English) Judge: Okay.
(Jefferson whispering) (woman speaks) (Jefferson whispering) Your Honor, I apologize.
We're not quite ready.
Jefferson: As public defenders fail to process their cases, judges like Calvin Holden are finding their courtrooms increasingly backlogged.
The system is slowly grinding to a halt.
When they don't have enough attorneys and they don't have any staff, really, to help them, they can't process cases.
And when a large segment of these cases every month have to be continued to the next month, and each time we do that it means it delays it a little bit longer.
And as more and more cases keep coming in the system, that lag time just gets longer.
Our jail is more crowded now than it ever has been.
Jefferson: We saw this firsthand at Green County's jail, where the majority of prisoners we met were waiting for their public defenders.
Sometimes for months.
Are you all being represented by public defenders? - Yes.
- Yup.
Have any of you met with your public defenders yet? (man speaks) Jefferson: And you still haven't met with your public defender? You've been here three months? And you haven't met your public defender yet? (speaking English) Really? (speaking English) Jefferson: Yeah.
Yeah.
How long have you been here in jail? Fourteen months? Jefferson: The prisoners who can't afford a lawyer usually can't afford bail either.
And as they wait indefinitely for their trials, the jail house is filling up.
This unit was built to house 42, and there are 67 in here today.
So obviously we have to load up some of the cells with more than two people.
Jefferson: Mm-hmm.
Officer: And we have what we call boats.
And they're just basically plastic-type mattresses, and somebody has to sleep on the floor.
There's four people in my two-man cell.
There's two of us on the floor.
Two of you are in the boats? We saw one of the boats.
No, we're on the floor.
There's too many-- there's-- we can't fit any boats in there.
Oh, wow.
They don't even have the boats that we saw, because the boats wouldn't fit in here, In addition to what we have here, we also got 115 inmates housed in other counties outside the facility because we don't have the beds for 'em.
The county will pay a million dollars, probably slightly over a million dollars this year in out-of-house-- out-of-county housing costs.
You can probably get a lot of public defenders with a million dollars.
Probably so.
Jefferson: Eighty percent of all criminal defendants need public defenders.
Despite this, of the $265 billion we spend each year on our criminal justice system, we spend less than 2% of that on public defense.
This leaves court-appointed lawyers like Bryan Delleville completely overwhelmed by their caseloads.
Good morning, Your Honor.
Mr.
McManus is here in custody behind me.
There's 25 cases that Brian's hearing.
Can I get just a-- a little bit more time? I mean, you can see the stacks on Bryan's desk right now.
All the blue folders.
Delleville: She takes care of her mom.
She also works-- I believe, it's two jobs.
So, she's trying to save the money so that she can get her license back.
So, if we could get November.
Uh, November 2nd.
And then we'll also set the case for a trial.
Jefferson: Bryan's now been here for, like, an hour.
And this is, I think, the 10th client we've seen him with.
Yeah.
You're good to go.
It's crazy how quickly he moves through these people.
(Delleville speaks) Jefferson: I think he's meeting with some of them for the first time.
(whispers) Next week, okay? Jefferson: I think the craziest thing is that every client thinks that their case is the most important one in the world to him, and he has to treat it that way.
Which can be challenging, especially with clients who have mental health issues.
Delleville: He was indicating to me that he believed he was able to proceed.
- Mentally competent.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
And I said, "I just need a doctor to come in and evaluate you and make sure, because you're facing up to seven years in prison.
" - Mm-hmm.
- "That you're-- "that we're all on board here and that we're good to go.
" Because you need to do your due diligence.
Right.
Right.
(whispers) Okay? (softly) Okay.
Delleville: I'm going to be seeking a mental health court screening for him.
I think at this point I have some concerns as to proceeding, so if I could just maybe get a reappearance next week.
Okay.
Let's do that.
(man speaks) So, I'm trying to get a doctor in there as soon as possible.
And what if a doctor says he's not good to proceed? Delleville: Well, we can't-- we can't proceed if-- (shouts) You went through 25 clients in about two hours.
Mm-hmm.
Is that enough time, really? (sighs) No.
(chuckles) In a perfect world, it would be best if, you know, I had enough time to meet with each of them well in advance of this hearing, rather than, those who are out of custody, a lot of times this is their appointment.
Unfortunately, you almost have to pick and choose some of the cases that you spend the most amount of time on.
I'd love to be able to do that on every single case.
- Yeah.
- I mean, I don't want to be somebody that's just standing next to somebody.
Jefferson: What makes this so hard to accomplish is that while Missouri's crime rate is amongst the highest in the country, it actually ranks 49th out of 50 states in terms of per capita funding for public defenders.
Delleville: This is my penthouse office here.
(laughs) It's huge.
Um, most of these files on my desk are from last Tuesday and Wednesday that I still have to process through.
So, this is-- basically, we're looking at your caseload here a little bit.
Yeah, plus that that and that and those, and in here.
Do you even know how many it is right now? Delleville: Um, I think it's about 200 or so.
Jefferson: Making matters worse, the public defenders in this office make an average $12,000 less than the prosecutors in the same county, despite having to handle record caseloads.
Man: Well, let's go ahead and get started.
First of all, I wanted to let you guys know about some things, some developments we've had in Greene County, as far as our caseload issues.
I had mentioned to Judge Holden about kind of where our numbers were at, and everybody was somewhere between 400 to 600% of capacity.
So that's where we're at with that.
Um, also mention that today is Dan's last day.
Uh, but it is Patty's first day, so welcome, Patty.
(cheering, clapping) Come Monday, assuming nobody quits between now and then, it will be the first time in 2016 we'll be fully staffed, so everybody keep your fingers crossed on that one, so.
Jefferson: Daniel Coulter went to law school specifically to become a public defender.
But after only three years, he's leaving to go into private practice.
Did you ever envision that this day would come, or were you confident you were gonna be a public defender your entire career? I didn't have any plans after the public defender's office Yeah.
when I left law school, or when I started this job.
And now you're leaving after three years.
Yeah.
It's-it's-it's, uh--- it's a little bit defeating, in a way.
Like I said, I wanted to be a PD.
- Yeah.
- And then it just didn't turn out to be everything I'd hoped.
So, if you had the caseload that you have now but you made more money, would that have kept you around? Possibly.
And if you made the amount of money you make right now but had fewer cases? - That would help as well.
Yeah.
- Yeah? Jefferson: As we focus more and more on criminal justice, from policing to overcrowding in prisons, the constitutional right to an adequate defense is often overlooked.
Ezekiel Edwards is the director of the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project.
He broke down why the proper funding of public defense is so important.
What are some of the real consequences that we're facing because of the fact that public defense is in shambles, as you say? We know that if you had lawyers at your first appearance, if you had lawyers at your bail hearings who were well-funded and well-resourced, we would have far fewer people detained pretrial.
Without a meaningful indigent defense system, you have what we have today, which is over two million people incarcerated and the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Jefferson: Expenditure on indigent defense in the United States is a very small fraction of our criminal justice spending as a whole.
Why is there such a discrepancy here? Well, the lack of indigent defense funding is a major problem.
States don't give more than 2% of their budgets, nationwide, to indigent defense funding.
And this results in what we have today, which is a crisis where we don't have lawyers in many courtrooms or the lawyers that are in those courtrooms are swimming under way too many cases and are unable to provide effective representation.
Is there any indigent defense office that's doing it right, in your eyes? There are places like the Bronx Defenders.
Jefferson: The Bronx Defenders serves the South Bronx, the country's poorest congressional district.
The office combines government money with their own fundraising, which allows them to hire specialized lawyers who work together in teams to provide their clients with the best possible defense.
So, I want to introduce you to Kevin Farley.
He is a housing attorney and civil attorney who works with me in my office, on my team.
Call to confirm Woman: When a client first meets their attorney, they may not know immediately that actually what they're getting is not just an attorney, they're getting an entire team.
And that team will have embedded in it immigration attorneys, housing attorneys, family court attorneys, social workers, community organizers, investigators-- an entire interdisciplinary approach to the criminal arrest.
and you contacted the police.
In addition to everything else, I would like you to meet your new lawyer.
We try all of our cases with two lawyers.
All of them.
But you're going to stay with me? Absolutely.
I'll be the lead lawyer on your case.
Always.
I'm not going anywhere.
Okay.
Thank you.
It's funny that what we're seeing here is almost exactly the opposite of what we saw in Missouri.
Whereas that was one public defender surrounded by, like, six different clients, this is one client surrounded by three different public defenders on this case.
- Thank you very much.
- All right.
All right.
Take care.
Jefferson: The argument for programs like the Bronx Defenders is that investing in quality public defense ends up saving money in the long run.
Steinberg: If you want to look at it from the dollars and cents point of view, addressing all the issues that clients are facing in the criminal justice system ultimately will save taxpayers and governments enormous amounts of money.
You'll see it in pretrial detention reduction.
You'll see it in the reduction of jail time.
You'll see it in the reduction of prison time.
So, it's very shortsighted to think that if we don't get involved at the beginning that somehow that's gonna wind up saving taxpayer dollars.
It's gonna wind up costing everybody more money.
But at the end of the day, there is value in being that person that stands next to the individual and fights every single day, in every way you can, um, to prevent the system from running them over.
All over the world, natural resources are being extracted at an astonishing pace.
As a result, developing countries often face what is known as a resource curse, where an influx of foreign money creates an increased risk of government corruption, exploitation, and civil war.
Now, this fight over resources is now raging in Peru, so we sent Ben Anderson to the Amazon to see what's happening on the ground there.
(insects buzzing) (birds chirping) (shouting in Spanish) So, it's about midnight.
It's freezing cold.
And something like 1,800 policemen and soldiers are gathering for a major operation against illegal miners here in a town called Rinconada.
(speaking Spanish) (soldier speaks Spanish) Ben Anderson: At sunrise the next day, the police arrived at Pampa Blanca, 15,000 feet above sea level, where the government says illegal gold miners are causing huge damage to the local environment.
(speaking Spanish) (barking) We watched as policemen laid explosives to destroy every makeshift mining platform they could find.
Anderson: We're about 25 meters away from-- (loud explosion) This one here is the next one that's gonna get blown up.
(explosion) But while the destruction of these mines may be good for the environment, it was clear that this operation would destroy the livelihoods of people at the very bottom of the food chain.
(woman shouting in Spanish) It's 50 villagers, maybe, versus 600, 800 heavily-armed policemen.
(speaking Spanish) (woman speaks Spanish) Anderson: The official stance of the government is that these operations are strictly to protect the environment.
Taskforce Chief Antonio Fernandez Jeri explained the cost of illegal mining.
(speaking Spanish) (loud explosion) We were told that if you pay a bribe, you can get a permit and continue your mining unharassed.
Is that true? (speaking Spanish) Anderson: But there are people who claim that when there are profits to be made, the government has shown itself to be perfectly willing to abandon the country's precious natural reserves.
Anthropologist Jesus Castro used to work for those oil and gas companies operating within Peru.
(Castro speaking Spanish) Anderson: What we were hearing was contradictory.
While the state says it wants to protect the land and the people that live on it, selling off the resources beneath it to multinational energy companies often results in mass deforestation.
To see the side effects of such deals, we went to the edge of Peru's Amazon region.
(man speaking Harakmbut) (distant machinery humming) Even now we can hear machines.
Where is that sound coming from? Anderson: As we drove on, devastation spread for miles.
Look at this.
Just no trees left.
Polluted water.
It looks like the battlefields of World War I.
It's brutal.
Peru is the top gold-producing country in Latin America, and the destruction has been going on for the last two decades.
All of this was once pristine rainforest.
And this used to be a source of real value, not just for the people who live here, but for the whole planet.
And now it's a source of poison.
As demand for gold rises, the mines continue to eat away at the rainforest.
But another potentially larger threat looms on the horizon.
Several companies have reason to believe there's natural gas here.
They've signed a deal with the Peruvian government to extract it.
Jesus saw what damage was being done and what further damage would be done if the project went ahead.
When his work was ignored, he spoke out.
(speaking Spanish) Anderson: Hunt oil has a devastating history of working in the Amazon.
They were part of a consortium of companies that managed the Camisea Gas Project, which was responsible for one of the major disasters in the Amazon.
The project caused five leaks in just 18 months, and contact with those working on it caused the spread of epidemics and chronic diseases.
Anderson: Jesus shared documents detailing just how extensive Hunt's exploration of Lot 76 has been.
And there's 166 heliports? (Castro speaks) Anderson: Hunt's concession also allows them to search for natural gas by setting off explosives which send seismic waves into the ground to create a map of drilling hot spots.
In order to get this deal, Hunt had to conduct an assessment about what impact their work would have.
So, this one is saying, "inexistencia.
" There's nothing of historical or cultural significance in this area.
(Castro speaks) Anderson: So, according to the government itself, anything of historical significance was inexistencia, or nonexistent in Lot 76.
If this could be proved wrong, the companies could be forced out.
We traveled deep into the heart of the jungle to find Lot 76 ourselves.
There we met the Harakmbut, a local tribe that has been mapping their territory and collecting evidence of cultural artifacts in a last-ditch effort to save their land.
We joined them on a six-day journey to find something they say has huge cultural significance-- a rock formation resembling a face they call El Rostro, one of three artifacts that will form the basis of their claim that the land should remain protected.
Why are you against Hunt coming here and having operations throughout the area? (speaking Spanish) (birds twittering) Anderson: Midway, the Harakmbut carried out a body painting ritual that they believe guarantees the protection of their ancestors.
(overlapping voices) (speaking Spanish) Anderson: He said that when I wake up in the morning, I'll be a transformed man, I'll be a Harakmbut.
I'll be one of them.
The following morning, we continued on, crossing rivers, hiking steep mountainsides, and constantly having to push the boat upstream when the river was too shallow.
The entire journey, the river's been this deep, maximum.
So we're always having to stop and drag the boat through.
(chattering) (whistling) (screeching) (speaking Spanish) Anderson: They spotted a couple of monkeys, at once common, but now a rare sight.
(man speaks native language) Anderson: They say the operations that have already started in the area have made wildlife scarce.
(speaking Spanish) Anderson: Lucho has stopped to make updates of the map he'd been drafting.
(speaking Spanish) Anderson: The map is covered with things that are significant to the people who live here, and it's supposed to be an area where nothing exists.
So, I think the fact that we're back at the river again means there's just one more peak to go over.
And then we're there.
(man singing in native language) Anderson: Before crossing that last peak, the Harakmbut conducted a tobacco ceremony they believe allayed their fears and negative thoughts.
(Anderson speaks) The Harakmbut believe that the face in the rock was carved by a god from ancient mythology.
(speaking Harakmbut) (speaking Harakmbut) What do you hope that discovering this could mean? (speaking Spanish) Anderson: In the time since we've filmed, Hunt has suspended exploratory drilling in Lot 76, a huge relief for the Harakmbut.
But the Peruvian government extended the company's rights to the area for three years.
When contacted, Hunt declined to comment on their operations in the Peruvian Amazon.