Day One Summit Advances Timely Access to Counsel in Kansas

On October 7 and 8, 2026, the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center and the Kansas State Board of Indigents’ Defense Services (BIDS) hosted a Day One public defense summit in Wichita, Kansas. The event, Represent on Day One, brought together public defense providers from across Kansas with experts from across the country to advance consistent, meaningful representation at initial appearance. Attendees worked directly on strategies for providing effective representation during the first hours and days of a criminal case.  Each of the Kansas public defender offices in attendance left with an action plan for making progress toward Day One representation.

Anthony Graves — a criminal justice reform advocate who spent over 18 years incarcerated in Texas, including 12 years on death row — delivered a keynote address emphasizing the difference that timely defense representation would have made in his case. Graves, who was exonerated in 2010, said that Day One representation could have prevented many of the procedural abuses that led to his wrongful conviction.

Public defenders from jurisdictions already providing Day One representation led practical discussions, offering examples of strategies that have worked elsewhere.

• Leon Walter, a public defender in Fargo, explained how attorneys in North Dakota are implementing a new law that guarantees counsel to any person incarcerated at the time of their initial appearance.
• Richard Carter, who directs Mississippi’s first rural regional Day One public defender office, detailed how his office overcame systemic barriers to provide robust Day One representation in one of the country's most rural states.
• Matthew Wechter, a public defender from San Diego, spoke about institutionalizing counsel at initial appearance and working to improve the quality of representation.

Several sessions also highlighted the developing local subject-matter expertise in the Kansas defense community:

• Michelle Neis, a deputy public defender in Topeka, spoke alongside Jeffery Stein, legal director at Civil Rights Corps about partnering to challenge applications of a new Kansas law that restricts pretrial release for many arrested people.
• Christy Jones, chief public defender in Hutchinson, Jessica Watts, chief public defender in Pittsburg, and Richard Buck, a defender in Salina participated in a panel discussion on offices providing counsel at initial appearance in Kansas.
• Josh Harsin from the BIDS administrative office partnered with Malia Brink, policy director at the Deason Center, on a presentation on the role of data and storytelling in advocacy for reform.
• Peter Conley, from the Death Penalty Defense unit in Topeka, spoke on how prompt representation is critical to forming a strong, long-term relationship with a client.

The Kansas event was the second Day One summit. The Deason Center previously hosted a national Day One summit in Dallas, Texas, in December 2025.  Zealous, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping public defense organizations maximize impact, provided planning and design support for the Kansas summit.