BEND, OR -- More public defense attorneys are coming to reduce the backlog of cases in Deschutes County.

Trial Court Administrator Angie Curtis told county officials Tuesday at the Public Safety committee meeting there are 152 unrepresented defendants awaiting court appearances right now. Only nine are in custody, "Part of the process when people are released at the moment, we're setting them out for hearings at 30, 90, 180 days to just sort of keep track of them and keep connected to them. Obviously, we're working all the time to see if we can't find an attorney who might be available to represent those cases."

The county partners with local law groups for their public defender pool. "All of them are currently or close to being fully staffed, which will make a huge difference, but it does take some time to on board. Those new attorneys, not all of the attorneys are ready yet to take some of the more serious cases and those kinds of things. But that is good news," Curtis said.

An ongoing shortage of court-appointed defenders worsened earlier this year when many lawyers transitioned out of the program for various reasons. "I want to be clear; this isn't going to be like, just a few weeks, it's going to be a long journey to try to absorb those cases that have accumulated over the past months," Curtis said, adding "While we're not going to get ahead of it, at least, hopefully we're getting back to our baseline capacity, which is a start."

Oregon and the rest of the country are also grappling with a public-defender shortage.