Public defenders who represent nearly half of the people facing criminal charges in Richmond’s court system are tired of being underpaid state employees.

The cadre of defense attorneys is campaigning to get City Hall to provide the same kind of taxpayer-funded salary supplement that the city has long granted the attorneys who prosecute the alleged offenders and the Richmond Sheriff’s Office that jails those who are convicted.

Employees of the Richmond Public Defend- er’s Office met recently with Lincoln Saunders, Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s chief of staff, and other city officials to make their case to have $1 million included in the next city budget.

The money would be used to raise the pay that the defense attorneys for the indigent now describe as meager state pay.

The results are promising, according to Ashley Shapiro, senior assistant public defender in the Richmond office.

She said Mr. Saunders said “multiple times” during an Oct. 9 meeting that “the mayor supports what we do, and he supports competitive pay.” Ms. Shapiro acknowledged, however, that no commitments were made.

Jim Nolan, the mayor’s press secretary, confirmed that “as a supporter of criminal justice reform, the mayor believes public defenders should be compensated more competitively.” “We look forward to continuing discussions with them to address their concerns as the upcoming budget cycle gets underway,” Mr. Nolan said. Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette W. McEachin, the city’s chief prosecutor, agrees

that public defenders should get higher pay. “I support them receiving a higher salary. They are just as important in the criminal justice system as prosecutors,” she said.

Public defenders also have reached out to members of Richmond City Council. New 5th District Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch already has voiced her support for pay parity, according to Deputy Public Defender Alanna Trivelli.

Public defenders say the measure, if approved, could finally allow them to achieve pay parity with the city’s prosecutors.

Richmond currently provides the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office with $7 million annually to enable staff to be paid more than the state provides. The deputy and assistant prosecutors who handle most cases currently average salaries that are 37 percent higher than public defenders, according to Ms. Shapiro. She noted that the annual salaries of assistant and deputy public defenders in Richmond currently range from $53,000 to $87,489, with the public defender or manager, Tracy E. Paner, paid about $121,000 a year.

Meanwhile, the city-supplemented annual salaries of assistant and deputy commonwealth’s attorneys range from $74,843 to $140,466, with Mrs. McEachin paid $206,125.

Prosecutors make substantially more as a result of the city’s help, Ms. Shapiro said, with newly hired prosecutors often making more than public defenders with more than a decade of experience.

Overall, salaries for Richond prosecutors are on average nearly 40 percent higher than those of the public defenders, Ms. Shapiro said.

The issue is fairness. In 2018, Richmond public defenders repesented people in 9,000 cases, a big chunk of the 4,000 cases filed in Richmond Circuit Court and the nearly 16,000 cases heard in General District Court.

The result of the disparity is high turnover in the Public Defender’s Office. Currently, 12 of the 29 attorneys in the public defender’s office have three years or less experience, according to the Richmond Public Defender’s Office. That contrasts with Mrs. McEachin’s office, where only five of the 33 attorneys have less than three years of experience.

“Public defenders are critical to our criminal justice system,” officials from the Public Defender’s Office stated in a release about the pay parity campaign. “So why does the City of Richmond supplement prosecutors’ salaries to ensure they make an average of nearly 40 percent more than Richmond’s public defenders?”

Virginia’s approach to supporting public defenders has been slow-moving and patchwork for decades, with long reliance on private attorneys being appointed by courts.

The General Assembly began creating public defender offices less than 20 years ago, and in 2008, the legislature authorized localities to supplement the salaries. So far, only five localities have done so — the cities of Alexandria and Charlottesville and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun.

Richmond public defenders attempted to convince Mayor Stoney during the 2019 budget discussion to include supplemental funds for the office in the budget, but did not succeed.

“We didn’t do as coordinated an approach last year,” Ms. Shapiro said. “That’s why this year we wanted to do a full court press and really try to get into the actual budget.”

Along with representing indigent defendants who are facing jail time, public defenders also often take on the role of social workers. They help connect clients to various social service and behaviorial health programs, she said, which helps reduce wrongful convictions and help people avoid re-offending. That results in lower rates of incarceration while improving the lives of families and communities connected to those charged.

Public defenders also are involved with the city’s diversion initiatives such as the drug court and the Writing Your Way Out program.

Ms. Shapiro said the goal is to gain support from other organizations for the pay parity lobbying campaign. The Legal Aid Justice Center and the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers are engaged, Ms. Trivelli said.

“We’ve already had people reach out to us to say, ‘How can I help?’ ” Ms. Shapiro said. “It’s been amazing. We’ve been very heartened by the response that we’ve gotten.”