If you're looking for input, my opinion is that you're approaching this from the wrong angle. Instead of focusing on this issue from the standpoint of public defenders, I'd focus more on the competency of the judges actually presiding over the cases themselves. If the person on the bench cannot see that there is a problem with a public defender, then why are they silent on this issue? What mechanism is in place, or can be put in place, to hold those inept judges accountable?

Getting assigned as a cell-mate someone you sentenced earlier, just because you failed to do your job while hearing a case, is an excellent incentive for those judges to pay better attention on what's going on in their own courtroom.

My take is that this is a (not-so) thinly veiled attempt by the likes of NLADA & the ACLU to get more money for their own cause célèbre.