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Holistic defense is a client-centered approach to public defense that aims to address the root causes of criminality, rather than simply focusing on the criminal charge(s) at hand. One of the keys to holistic defense is leveraging a team of advocates, which can include lawyers, social workers, housing specialists, and others. By working hand in hand with experts in their respective fields, public defenders can address the non-criminal needs of their clients and reduce recidivism.
In southern California, the Santa Barbara County Public Defender’s Office has quietly built a renowned holistic defense practice. Since formally adopting a holistic defense model in 2017, the office has focused on addressing underlying issues like mental health, substance use, and housing instability that often bring individuals into the justice system.
One of the biggest challenges the office faced was that holistic defense work is inherently client-centric, while traditional case management systems are casecentric. Advocates often work with clients who have multiple open cases, and prior to their new system, tracking that work meant pulling information from five to ten different spreadsheets. Reporting required weeks of manual consolidation, and critical information was difficult for attorneys to access.
In 2016, Santa Barbara County implemented eDefender as part of their mandate to ensure their holistic defense advocates could operate more effectively. They were looking for a case management system with the flexibility to adapt to their unique workflows and practices. As the Public Defender’s office expanded their team, that flexibility was essential to their clients’ stability and success.
Key to the office’s implementation is Angela Stokke, Network Administrator and chief architect of the office’s custom holistic defense module. In 2019, Stokke was tasked with figuring out how to adapt their system to reach the agency’s long-term objectives. Starting with a variety of spreadsheets and a simple directive to “get this into eDefender,” she spent nearly eighteen months working with advocates and managers to identify needs, consolidate data, and figure out how to properly map that data to the client level. The proof of concept came through a custom “Custody” entity, establishing definitively that eDefender could successfully support client-centered data.
From there, the holistic defense module took shape. Services provided by advocates are now tied directly to the client and tracked across related cases. If an advocate works with a client for six or seven months, any progress made or treatment provided will populate across all of that client’s cases. Attorneys no longer need to click through multiple cases or search for scattered notes; the information they need appears directly within the case they’re handling.
For employees like Matt Speredelozzi, Chief Trial Deputy, the impact has been significant. “Judges ask about a client’s progress – how long services have been provided, what treatment milestones have been reached, or whether a client is in remission,” he explained. “Now attorneys can answer immediately, supported by current, accurate data.”
The benefits reportedly extend beyond daily operations. With data centralized in their system, Santa Barbara County can easily integrate with tools like Power BI to generate real-time visualizations and reports. What once required extensive manual effort can now be produced on demand, giving their funders a clear, transparent view into the work being done and the outcomes being achieved.
There’s likely a simple truth that explains why Santa Barbara County’s implementation works for them: no case management system is all-knowing or can function in a vacuum. A standalone system provides a partial picture of a given situation, but holistic defense requires a much more complete picture. By integrating eDefender with key partners and other systems to pull in the necessary data, Santa Barbara empowers their team of experts to connect the dots.