The Census of Public Defender Offices (CPDO) collects information on public defender office operations, such as office structure and expenditures, numbers and types of cases handled, size and characteristics of staff, funding sources, and special units operated.

You can find more information on our project page.

Your participation in the survey will provide practitioners, BJS, academics and the public with information about the current operations of public defender offices across the country. The prior CPDO was conducted in 2007. This data is out of date and does not reflect the current environment or operations of public defender offices. Updated information is needed to reflect the state of public defender offices in 2024 and we hope that your office will complete the census.

Participation in this study is voluntary, however the more offices who complete the survey increases our ability to accurately reflect the current operations, staffing and workload of public defender offices. The census may also be delegated to any knowledgeable person within your office.

We completely understand! For your convenience, and because the participation of your office is so important, we offer several options for your office to complete the questionnaire. Additionally, you may submit your responses via the online instrument at your convenience, and over time – the survey can be completed in sections, as all responses will be saved as the questions are answered.

We also have interviewers who can complete the survey with you over the phone. Simply call our phone number (866) 582-4052 to schedule this.

The survey may also be delegated to another knowledgeable person within your office.

You may call the project toll-free at 1-866-582-4052 or email the project via e-mail at CPDO@norc.org at any time.

This survey is funded by Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). BJS is the primary statistical agency of the Department of Justice. It is one of the thirteen principal federal statistical agencies throughout the Executive Branch, agencies whose activities are predominantly focused on the collection, compilation, processing, or analysis of information for statistical purposes.

The mission of BJS is to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. BJS also provides financial and technical support to state, local, and tribal governments to improve both their statistical capabilities and the quality and utility of their criminal history records. NORC at the University of Chicago is administering the census on behalf of BJS.

NORC at the University of Chicago is a non-profit social science research organization. Since 1941, NORC has been serving the public interest and improving lives through objective social science research that supports informed decision making. NORC is administering the data collection on behalf of BJS. You will receive continued communication from NORC regarding the data collection and the NORC CPDO team can provide assistance should you need any while you participate in the survey.

The National Association for Public Defense (NAPD) is a nationwide membership association made up of over 25,000 public defense professionals, with a focus on training, community-building, and advocacy. Since 2013, NAPD has worked alongside its members and diverse partners to champion the constitutional right to counsel and meaningful access to justice for poor people.

The CPDO is a census of all publicly funded public defender offices with at least one (1) W-2 earning attorney that provides direct public defense representation for adults and/or juveniles who are accused of a crime or delinquency or accused in a trial court of violating conditions of a sentence. Your office was selected based on these criteria. If you believe your office is not eligible for the census, please let us know by emailing CPDO@norc.org.

The invitation to complete the Census of Public Defender Offices (CPDO) was sent to the Chief Public Defender or other office lead. The census may be delegated to knowledgeable office staff to complete all or a subset of questions.

The CPDO data will allow accurate descriptions of public defense in the United States. The data will permit analysis of public defender services across places that differ by urbanicity, types of cases handled, office size, funding sources, and other key factors. The CPDO will publish statistical reports that show aggregates of collected survey information grouped by these factors. The reports will not focus or report on any individual defender office, county, or state.

The answers to the Census will be made public. Data that is collected from offices responding to the CPDO will be archived and made available through the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, located within the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan. More information can be found here: https://bjs.ojp.gov/data/national-archive-criminal-justice-data. Office name and contact information for the office or any persons completing the survey will not be included in the archived file.

Yes. Information like the name or address of the person responding to the survey are considered confidential, personal data, that shall never be released publicly. These kinds of data are used to collect Census responses, but do not become part of any public dataset. BJS will have that information, but it will be kept internally to the agency pursuant to strict protocols, including that it will be severed from the dataset of office responses.

Generally, BJS data collections have strict statutory data protections to ensure the confidentiality of personal data collected at BJS’s direction and ensure that collected data be used only for statistical purposes. BJS must maintain the confidentiality of all information identifiable to a private person (34 U.S.C. § 10231(b)), and the data that it collects may only be used for statistical or research purposes (34 U.S.C. § 10234). Confidentiality of respondents and limits of use to statistical and research purposes is described in detail in BJS's Data Protections Guidelines (https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/bjs_data_protection_guidelines.pdf).

In addition, all NORC and BJS staff sign a confidentiality agreement that establishes penalties if confidentiality is breached.

You may complete the census online by entering the PIN for your office in the box above. The PIN is located on the cover letter that your office initially received inviting you to take part in the study. It is also located on the front cover of the hardcopy form mailed to your office. If you can't locate your PIN, contact NORC at CPDO@norc.org to receive your PIN. Please note that you will be completing the survey on behalf of your entire office.

If you were delegated a subsection of questions, the link within the email will jump directly to the questions for you to complete.

The census may also be completed by filling in the hardcopy form and returning the form to NORC in the provided self-addressed stamped envelope.

NORC staff can also be reached by telephone, if you would like to complete all or part of the survey by phone.

Responding to all questions should take approximately 60 minutes to complete.

If you have a significant number of changes to make, the web survey can be reset and you can complete it again at your convenience. However, you will have to complete the survey again in its entirety. if your changes are minimal, the project team can document them, and we will edit the data to reflect these updates. Please contact CPDO@norc.org if you need to adjust any answers.

If there are some questions that you cannot find information for you may opt to skip these questions, or you can select the "Estimate" option and provide your best estimate. Please return the census with as much information as you are able to complete. All the data you can provide is valuable.

This may happen if you were recently logged into the survey. Please wait 15 minutes and try logging in again. If this doesn't work, please contact CPDO@norc.org and we will confirm that your PIN is correct.