This happens even when defendants' charges mean they could end up behind bars.
While Gideon's Promise offers training in courtroom tactics and storytelling for public defenders, its goal is much larger: to create a nationwide community.
In St. Louis, Missouri, an effort to manage enormous caseloads left hundreds of the city's poorest without a lawyer.
Our incarceration rate makes America exceptional. The public defenders who push back are some of our greatest patriots.