Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Public Defenders are attorneys paid by the government to represent people who can't afford to hire a lawyer. They are often very good attorneys, but they tend to have very large caseloads and can't always give clients as much personal attention.

It is very common for a lawyer to have to wait a couple of days to get the information on a new case. When your boyfriend was arrested and brought to court, that is probably the first thing his lawyer heard about it. It is not unreasonable for his attorney to visit him two days later, after obtaining the documents related to his new probation violation. It sounds like his case was continued for a few days so his attorney could get up to speed.

Judges tend to take a defendant's failure to appear very seriously, and often keep the defendant in jail so they know know he will make it to his next court date.

From what you've written, I don't see that his attorney has done anything wrong. Criminal defense attorneys are like emergency room doctors: we need to remain calm and professional in a crisis, and handle things in an organized and methodical fashion, because getting excited and panicking won't help our clients.