<!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ --></p> <p>from <a href=""https://calmatters.org/author/sisi-wei/"" title=""Posts" by="" sisi="" wei="" class=""author" url="" fn="" rel=""author"">Sissy Way</a>CalMatters</p> <figure> <img decoding="async" width=""1200"" height=""800"" src=""https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/011326-ITN-ANAT-GH-CM.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1"" class=""attachment-post-thumbnail" size-post-thumbnail="" wp-post-image="" alt=""Graphic" of="" a="" screenshot="" the="" story="" walmart="" public="" defense="" next="" to="" text="" jan="" winner="" rubin="" and="" sidney="" hillman="" foundation="" logo="" decoding=""async"" srcset=""https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/011326-ITN-ANAT-GH-CM.png?w=2000&ssl=1" https:="" sizes=""(max-width:"/><figcaption>Graphic by Gabriel Hongsdusit, CalMatters</figcaption></figure> <p>This story was originally published by <a href=""https://calmatters.org/"">CalMatters</a>. <a href=""https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/"">Sign up</a> for their newsletters.</p> <p>CalMatters investigative reporter Anat Rubin won the Sidney Award from the Sidney Hillman Foundation for her story, “<a href=""https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/12/the-walmart-of-public-defense/"">The WalMart of Public Defense: How Justice is Sold to the Lowest Bidder in Rural California.</a>Each month, the Sydney Prize honors outstanding investigative journalism that exposes social and economic injustices.</p> <p>The judges said they were drawn to the investigation because it was “original, well reported and well presented”. Sydney judge Lindsay Beierstein said the report “speaks volumes about the role public defenders play in maintaining the integrity of the entire system, not just protecting their clients.”</p> <p>Rubin’s investigation found that nearly half of California counties pay private attorneys and firms to represent poor people in criminal cases, and that most of them do so through what’s known as a “fixed fee” contract, meaning they pay a fixed amount regardless of how many cases the attorneys handle or how much time they spend on each case. As Rubin details in his story, these arrangements so clearly disincentivize investigation and lawsuits that they are banned in other parts of the country. But they thrive in California. </p> <p>She focuses the story on one firm with several such contracts across the state—a firm that has become known as the “WalMart of public defense” for its ubiquity and tactics. </p> <p>This project is the second part of Rubin’s series examining the lack of key safeguards against wrongful conviction in California. Her first track, “<a href=""https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/06/public-defense-investigators/"">The man who didn’t solve a murder</a>,” found that poor people accused of crimes, who make up at least 80 percent of felony defendants, are routinely convicted in California without anyone investigating the charges against them. Nearly half of California’s 58 counties do not employ full-time investigators. Among the rest of the counties, defendants’ access to investigators varies widely, but is almost always insufficient.</p> <p>Read the Sidney Hillman Foundation <a href=""https://www.hillmanfoundation.org/sidney-awards/calmatters-wins-january-sidney-exposing-californias-flat-fee-do-nothing-public-defense"">interview with Rubin</a> about the piece. </p> <p>This article was <a href=""https://calmatters.org/inside-the-newsroom/2026/01/anat-rubin-sidney-award/"">originally published on CalMatters</a> and is republished under <a href=""https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives</a> license.</p> <p> Copy the HTML
