The Missouri Public Defender System has 36 offices. All of them are working more cases than they can handle. The system provides defense attorneys for people who can't afford to hire private attorneys.

The 13 defenders for Greene County estimate they each have more than 150 cases open at any one time. So, in the name of better service, the system will no longer defend people accused of violating probation.

"Is it going to fix the problem? No. But it would hopefully give some relief to our attorneys,” said Rod Hackathorn, the supervisor of public defenders in Greene County. “Probation violations are not something that take a great deal of time as far as prepping them and getting ready to do them in court."

The hope is that private attorneys with the Springfield-Greene County Bar Association will volunteer to pick up these cases from the defenders. Both agencies are in talks to see if that's a possibility.

The defenders office says the overloaded system keeps it from giving clients’ cases the attention they deserve.

Not every public defender office in the state is turning probation violators away. The office in Greene County is just one of a handful for now.

Just about everyone says this strategy is a temporary fix. Defenders say only state money appropriated by the Legislature and governor for more staff will truly solve the problem of the large caseloads.