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Joel Wirtz is the Executive Director of the nonprofit public defender’s office in Bend: Deschutes Defenders. After serving in the Marines, he moved to Oregon and has been a public defender for nearly 20 years. He has successfully defended accusations from theft to murder.

A strong advocate for veterans and those suffering from mentally illness, Joel has served as attorney for those going through Mental Health Court and the Veteran’s Intervention Strategy.

A leading proponent of holistic defense, he has worked with local stakeholders to ensure a safer and more equitable community. In his spare time, he runs the trails, often with a headlamp, and tries to expand his emotional intelligence with the help of his daughters and wife, a therapist.

In this edition of Bend Don’t Break, we talk with Wirtz about the crisis in public defense resources in Oregon and the nation, how Oregon’s challenges in mental health care play a role in adequate defense and more.

LISTEN NOW:

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This article appears in Source Weekly April 6, 2023.

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LISTEN: Deschutes Defenders with Joel Wirtz 🎧

by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon
April 10, 2023

<h1>LISTEN: Deschutes Defenders with Joel Wirtz 🎧</h1> <p class="byline">by The Source Staff, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />April 10, 2023</p> <p><span class="fdnDropCap">J</span>oel Wirtz is the Executive Director of the nonprofit public defender’s office in Bend: Deschutes Defenders. After serving in the Marines, he moved to Oregon and has been a <a href="https://despd.org/" target="_blank">public defender</a> for nearly 20 years. He has successfully defended accusations from theft to murder. </p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full alignright alignright"><a href="https://www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bend-dont-break-podcast-joel-wirtz.webp"><img src="https://www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/bend-dont-break-podcast-joel-wirtz.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-46229" /></a></figure> <p> A strong advocate for veterans and those suffering from mentally illness, Joel has served as attorney for those going through Mental Health Court and the Veteran’s Intervention Strategy.</p> <p>A leading proponent of holistic defense, he has worked with local stakeholders to ensure a safer and more equitable community. In his spare time, he runs the trails, often with a headlamp, and tries to expand his emotional intelligence with the help of his daughters and wife, a therapist.</p> <p>In this edition of Bend Don't Break, we talk with Wirtz about the crisis in public defense resources in Oregon and the nation, how Oregon's challenges in mental health care play a role in adequate defense and more.</p> <p><i><b>LISTEN NOW:</p> <p></b></i> </p> <div class="wp-block-group newspack-embed-container align"> <div style="font-size: 10px;color: #cccccc;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-779383396" title="Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc;text-decoration: none">Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-779383396/deschutes-defenders-with-joel-wirtz" title="Deschutes Defenders with Joel Wirtz" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc;text-decoration: none">Deschutes Defenders with Joel Wirtz</a></div> </p></div> <p> <i><b></p> <p></b></i> </p> <div class="wp-block-group is-style-border fdn-in-article-related"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Related</h3> </p></div> <div class="wp-block-group is-style-border fdn-in-article-related"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Related</h3> </p></div> <div class="wp-block-group fdn-after-article-related"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Related Stories</h3> </p></div></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/listen-deschutes-defenders-with-joel-wirtz-18966433/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=46224&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/listen-deschutes-defenders-with-joel-wirtz-18966433/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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