FLORENCE – The criminal justice system is not well-equipped to combat the heroin problem in Northern Kentucky, a Boone County public defender says.
“We get in on it at the tail end of the problem,” said Steve Florian, an attorney who serves Boone County for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. “I don’t know the solution, but we all need to get involved in finding it.”
Florian spoke to the Florence Rotary Club on Monday, July 8. He said the nine public defenders in the office serving Boone County averaged 400 cases each last year, 100 more than recommended by the National Bar Association. He attributed the heavy caseloads, in part, to the rise of the heroin trade in Northern Kentucky.
“Heroin use is out of control,” he said. “It’s the highest it’s ever been in Kentucky and Northern Kentucky is at the epicenter.
Florian said Northern Kentucky authorities are dealing with an average of three heroin overdose cases a month because the drug is cheap and readily available. He urged Rotary members to be on the alert for drug use among their children and to get involved in efforts to rid the community of it.
“It’s a community problem, not a criminal justice problem,” Florian said. “We all need to get involved because it’s killing young people. It’s going to take everyone getting involved to solve this problem.”
Dr. Jeremy Engel, a family practice doctor with St. Elizabeth Physicians in Bellevue, is spearheading a drive to educate Northern Kentuckians about the magnitude of the problem and to enlist volunteers to fight it. The Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force, North Key, Transitions, Brighton’s Women Center and Boone County officials are among other groups involved in the campaign.
The Department of Public Advocacy provides representation for people who are too poor to hire an attorney. The state agency also provides community services, such as expungement assistance for people trying to get their lives back together.
Florian notes that public defenders will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their profession this year. The public advocacy system grew out of a Supreme Court ruling in Gideon vs. Wainwright that required state courts to provide counsel in criminal cases to defendants unable to pay for their own attorneys.
The decision overturned a burglary conviction based largely on the testimony of one person, Florian said. Clarence Earl Gideon was acquitted after a retrial five months after the Supreme Court decision.
“That goes to show the power and necessity of having an attorney to speak for you,” Florian said.