On September 12, 2021, Attorneys Matt Gonzalez and Francisco Ugarte published an article on Medium titled “An Open Letter to the Biden Administration: It’s time to drop charges against José Ines García Zárate” whom they represented in state court when he was charged and acquitted of the murder of Kate Steinle. The new editorial argues...Read More

In this Op Ed published in The Nation, San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Carla Gomez, Hena Mansori of the Bronx Defenders, and Sophia Gurulé of Cook County Public Defenders penned these powerful critiques of President Biden’s “American Dream and Promise Act” otherwise known as HR 6. While the bill has many good measures, certain parts...Read More

“I am extremely disturbed to learn of Sheriff Miyamoto’s plans to move up to 100 people currently held in the San Francisco County Jail to Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County. Nearly 50 people have died in Santa Rita Jail in the last 5 years, and the jail has been deemed by East Bay Express...Read More

SF’s failed ‘War on Drugs’ needs innovation to transform the status quo by Hadi Razzaq, Managing Attorney for the Investigation Unit of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office San Francisco has historically responded to street-level drug activity in the same way: periodically cracking down on low-level drug sellers by ramping up policing. But arresting and...Read More

Op Ed by Danielle Harris – Director of Public Integrity for the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Published by the San Francisco Examiner on September 13, 2019 Our mental health crisis is not a tragedy waiting to happen, as some would have it. The tragedies are happening, have happened, and continue to happen. They are stacking...Read More

NOTE: This op-ed will appear in Friday’s Daily Journal to declare that we have the right to plead no contest, a right that San Francisco courts have denied our clients. While it is true that the taking of a no contest plea is subject to the court’s permission, I argue that their decision to deny...Read More

Read Jeff Adachi's piece on Medium.Read More

Read the SF Public Defender's op-ed in the San Francisco Examiner.Read More

Drugs arrests are way down. But racial disparities remain sky high. Read Jeff Adachi's op-ed in the San Francisco Examiner.Read More

The case of a San Francisco senior citizen accused of stealing $5 and a bottle of cologne from his neighbor reveals the obvious injustice of California's bail system, and may finally lead to reform.Read More