next is don porter, the producer of gideon's army. the clip we just saw. don is a founder of trilogy films and director of gideon's army. it premiered in the 2010 sundance festival. she's an a -- she's on the 2012 hot shot directors emerging to watch, she's also graduated from georgetown university law center and practicing attorney and abc television networks before starting her television career and next is john. i met john about 10 years ago when he was starting off and had this crazy idea of operating a training center for public defenders and he did. he's no now the president and founder and one of the contributors to gideon's army, he's from john marshall law school where he teaches law and criminal procedure. he was in the post katrina and new orleans center. he trained people in the film. he received an advocacy fellowship and named a public interest fellow by harvard law school. next we have maurice call well. he was convicted in the housing project here in san francisco. there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime yet he was still conv

. >> joining me here in nerdland is the film's director don porter and two public defenders from the and brand alexander. also with us is poet and prison activist bryon baines. nice to have you here. don, let me start with you. why, obviously we're at 50 years after gideon, but why this film now? >> i actually started making the film after meeting a mentor and trainer in atlanta. so i actually started making the film not thinking about the gideon anniversary. so it's a really happy accident but it's a perfect one because i think people are now talking about the fact that america, as you mentioned, arrests more people, imprisons more people, we're definitely number one in the world with 2.3 people in prison, 80% of people who go through the criminal justice system are represented by public defenders yet very few people know what they do. >> not only don't know. to the extent they do know, obvious have a derogatory image of public defenders, they are bad lawyers, couldn't get another job, don't do a good job for their clients. >> i think that's a common miss perception. i was a lawyer.

don porter is the film's director, and producer, joining us here on msnbc on a sunday., and dawn, are the poor getting adequate representation? >> you know, it depends. sadly, it depends on where you live, and what kind of lawyer you've got. but overall, i think most poor people can be justifiably concerned about the representation they're getting. >> are you saying more often than not they are not getting the proper representation? >> i think more often than not, the lawyers that serve indigent defendants, serve poor people. 80% of people arrested in this country are represented by public defenders. so if we don't support, train and adequately pay public defenders and give them the resources they need, it's very difficult for them to do their jobs, even if they want to do a great job. >> why aren't they able to do a good job? >> you know, i don't want to suggest in any way they're not able to do a good job. i think what happens is, when you're given so many cases, so, for example, in miami we just you a really revolutionary state court decision allowing public defender