Crime is often an act of desperation.

When people struggle with the basics of life, like buying clothes to look presentable for work or accessing transportation, they may turn to crime to get what they don’t have. They may steal what they can’t have. They may turn to drugs to cover up the pain of having not.

That’s not an excuse for criminal behavior — but it is sometimes an explanation.

That’s why we’re glad to see the Northeast Michigan Regional Defender Office invest in a social worker.

Social worker Amanda Schuelke helps clients with everything from bus passes so they can make it to court to Salvation Army referrals so they can buy clothes for work, connecting defendants with whatever resources she can “to keep them motivated to take care of themselves and feel like the best version of themselves.

“The whole goal is to prevent them from reoffending,” Schuelke told News staff writer Temi Fadayomi for a recent story.

That should be the goal of every aspect of the criminal justice system, and we’re glad to see the Regional Defenders Office investing in that important work.

If the court system can help defendants become successful without crime, it decreases the likelihood defendants will turn to crime. And that saves taxpayers money by preventing costly adjudication and incarceration and helps keep communities safe.

Thanks go to the Regional Defenders Office for investing in that important work, and we encourage the state (much of the Defenders Office’s funding comes from a state agency called the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission) to continue investing in such work.