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But loosening the money spigot to pay more to bar advocates would open a huge can of political worms — why bar advocates, and not, for instance, low-paid prosecutors? "The big picture here is that we have a criminal-justice system that has been chronically underfunded," says Middlesex district attorney Martha Coakley. "This is a crucial time for a lot of folks to come to the table and ask, are we spending the right amount of money, and spending it in the right way?"

If the legislature really started looking closely at where we spend our criminal-justice dollars, lawmakers might notice that some of the alleged hack jobs in the judiciary have more than doubled in the past 20 years. Lowly court officers now start at $42,000, for example, which is more than new assistant DAs earn. Assistant clerks now make $68,000, and court clerks make $80,000.

Other groups with union power do particularly well. "Massachusetts pays top dollar to police officers, corrections officers, and probation officers" compared to other states, says attorney Tom Workman, director of the Massachusetts Association of Court Appointed Attorneys (MACAA), formed earlier this year to support lobbying efforts. "Within the last couple of months, I’ve seen double the amount of security guards in the courthouse," adds Mike Erlich, president of Bar Advocates Worcester County. "The money is there to get those personnel in the courtroom for our safety."

In Massachusetts district-attorneys’ offices, where prosecutors start at an almost laughable $35,000 while their counterparts at corporate law firms make six figures, it’s rare to find a prosecutor with more than five years’ experience anymore. "The low pay and the turnover means that you don’t have the expertise needed," Coakley says. "In my office, I see a huge turnover rate at two to four years, and then again at seven to eight. I can’t compete with the private firms."

The CPCS also starts its on-staff attorneys at $35,000, as does the AG’s Office. These are the only three places in state government with such low starting salaries for lawyers. CPCS, which can offer little room for advancement, can’t hold on to its attorneys. In addition to the 20 public-defender positions eliminated because of budget cuts, 40 more public defenders have left in the past three years of their own accord, mostly because of money.

Judges also have a beef. Their pay, at $112,700, is among the lowest in the nation. Earlier this month, 45-year-old District Court judge Richard Savignano, of Brockton, announced his retirement from the bench to join business-law firm Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault. Savignano cited money — his oldest daughter enters college next year — as a factor. Judges have also become increasingly resentful of the control exercised over them by the legislature, which uses the line items in the annual budget to make a mockery of judicial independence. Add to that the crumbling courthouses in which many have to work, and the sense of resentment among the judiciary becomes palpable.

"There has to be a reordering of priorities in what the state funds," says Greco. "We do not fairly compensate any of those positions, and they are so fundamental to public safety, and to basic democracy."

In fact, lawyers report that fewer and fewer attorneys coming out of Massachusetts law schools even consider criminal-trial work. "And that might be shortchanging the system a bit," says Erlich. There used to be waiting lists for the CPCS training required for taking indigent cases, but no more. Those who do sign up are the most inexperienced, often those who have just passed the bar, says researcher Bob Spangenberg, of the Spangenberg Group.

Is it any wonder that the state’s criminal-justice system makes more headlines for its failures than for its successes? "I think that one of the reasons we have had erroneous convictions in the past is underfunded offices, low salaries of prosecutors and defenders, and a court system without the time and energy to deal with cases," says Coakley.

In Boston, the backlog of homicide defendants awaiting trial — many for several years — prompted Suffolk Superior Court to announce earlier this month that it will hold special sessions beginning this fall to try to move them along. In Suffolk, only three killers have been convicted at trial this year — fewer than the number who have had murder convictions overturned or vacated during the same stretch, and down from last year’s total of nine, 15 in 2002, and 32 back in 1998. The conviction rate over the past eight years is a dismal 73 percent; nationally the figure is well above 90 percent.

SPANGENBERG ARGUES that as a result of poor pay in Massachusetts, more post-trial work has had to be done to correct mistakes made by inexperienced, overworked attorneys on both sides of the courtroom. That’s why higher salaries and hourly rates can be offset by long-term savings, if done properly. The rates for bar advocates could be raised incrementally — commensurate, perhaps, with years of experience, suggests Workman — to encourage good defenders to stay with the indigent system. By increasing the number of attorneys taking cases, the state will end up spending less money detaining defendants who are awaiting bail hearings. And opening up the process to scrutiny will reveal potential cost savings — including patronage — that the governor and legislature pay lip service to but don’t act on.

Inexperienced prosecutors also clog the court system with low-level cases, while experienced lawyers can be more selective about which cases to bring to court, says local attorney Andrew Good, a founding member of Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "We have hundreds of thousands of cases in district court, and some percentage of them don’t need to be prosecuted," Good says.

Coakley, on the prosecution side, agrees that case selection, or even decriminalization of select offenses, should be on the table for discussion. So should the question of who qualifies for indigent representation in the first place, she says. She would also like to see the courts improve their efficiency, so as not to waste the lawyers’ and judges’ time, and to make sure cases progress toward conclusion.

But perhaps most important, these cases would no longer receive the least amount of justice we can provide. Nobody expects every drug dealer to get an O.J. dream-team defense at the state’s expense. But they don’t deserve the nightmare of no counsel at all. We should be able to find a happy medium that allows us all to sleep easier.

David S. Bernstein can be reached at dbernstein[a]phx.com.