FRIEND NEEDS CRIMINAL DEFENSE "PRO BONO"

If your friend cannot afford a lawyer, he will be appointed an attorney from the public defender's office. If he has already been appointed a lawyer but has a specific and justifiable concern about the quality of representation his court-appointed lawyer is providing, he can request a new lawyer to be appointed.

If he would just prefer to have someone other than a PD to represent him, he can check for law school clinics and/or private law firms pro bono departments.

The United States Constitution requires the Government to provide an attorney at no charge to a person who is charged with a crime and who is indigent. The Public Defender can only represent one person in a criminal case, so if more than one defendant is charged the additional defendants will each be appointed another attorney, often a private attorney who is paid by the hour.
A kidnapping charge is a serious crime that can have a significant term of imprisonment. The best approach is to have regular communication with the appointed attorney and to ask him/her to explain the plan to defend the case. If the attorney is not communicating with the client or is failing to do the things he/she said would be done, the client can make a Marsden motion to have the appointed counsel relieved and replaced with another attorney.