All language subtitles for Vice S05E17 Last Line of Defense & El Rostro

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.

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.

And then, the ongoing conflict

over resources
in the jungles of Peru.

It looks like the battlefields
of World War I.

It's brutal.

Go, go, go!

We are not animals!

Sync & corrections by honeybunny
www.addic7ed.com

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.

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.

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.

Okay.

Your Honor, I apologize.
We're not quite ready.

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.

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?

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?

Really?

Yeah.

Yeah.

How long have you been here
in jail?

Fourteen months?

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.
- Mm-hmm.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I think he's meeting with
some of them for the first time.

Next week, okay?

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.

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.

- Okay?
- Okay.

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.

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?

Well, we can't--
we can't proceed if--

You went through 25 clients

in about two hours.

Mm-hmm.

Is that enough time, really?

No.

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.

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.

This is my
penthouse office here.

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?

Um, I think it's...

about 200 or so.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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...

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.

The argument for
programs like the Bronx Defenders

is that investing in quality
public defense

ends up saving money
in the long run.

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.

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.

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.

We watched as policemen
laid explosives

to destroy every makeshift
mining platform they could find.

We're about
25 meters away from--

This one here is the next one
that's gonna get blown up.

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.

It's 50 villagers, maybe,

versus 600,
800 heavily-armed policemen.

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.

We were told
that if you pay a bribe,

you can get a permit and
continue your mining unharassed.

Is that true?

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.

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.

Even now we can hear machines.
Where is that sound coming from?

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.

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.

Jesus shared documents
detailing just how extensive

Hunt's exploration
of Lot 76 has been.

And there's 166 heliports?

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.

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?

Midway, the Harakmbut
carried out a body painting ritual

that they believe guarantees the
protection of their ancestors.

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.

They spotted
a couple of monkeys,

at once common,
but now a rare sight.

They say the operations
that have already started in the area

have made wildlife scarce.

Lucho has stopped to make
updates of the map he'd been drafting.

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.

Before crossing that last peak,

the Harakmbut conducted
a tobacco ceremony

they believe allayed their
fears and negative thoughts.

The Harakmbut believe
that the face in the rock

was carved by a god
from ancient mythology.

What do you hope that
discovering this could mean?

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.