InvestigateWest Quotes Professor Pruitt on Washington State's Public Defender Crisis

Professor Lisa Pruitt spoke to InvestigateWest for an April 8 report on a public defender shortage in Washington state that has left indigent defendants waiting weeks and sometimes months for an attorney.

The story noted that rural Asotin County relies almost entirely on contracted, non-employee attorneys.

“I think relying on contract attorneys is a little scary because you just really have to rely on the attorneys’ integrity and intelligence and experience,” Pruitt told InvestigateWest. “There’s a lot at stake for people if something goes wrong.”

Pruitt co-authored the 2025 Yale Law Journal Forum article “Legal Deserts and Spatial Injustice: A Study of Criminal Legal Systems in Rural Washington.”

Distinguished Professor of Law Lisa R. Pruitt is a scholar whose recent work explores the legal relevance of rural spatiality, including how it inflects dimensions of gender, race, and ethnicity. Pruitt's work also considers rural-urban difference in transnational and international contexts. She is the recipient of the law school’s 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award.