PUBLIC DEFENDER’S CLASS

Abstract

This article aims to understand how public defenders fit into class society. From the 2022 National Survey on Public Defenders, we found that defenders are mostly white, coming from careers and jobs with income above four minimum wages. It was also noticed that public defenders saw themselves as agents of social transformation and, in their work, ended up getting involved in issues central to capitalist exploitation, placing themselves alongside the working mass. However, the contradictions, typical of the middle class, are visible. Despite surviving on their own salaries, defenders have a much higher standard of living than the majority of the population and, within their institution, they live with power disputes that even involve the living conditions of the institution's other servants.