Over 550 people’s trial deadlines have passed; Over 150 of them are still in jail. Hundreds more are in line behind them. On September 16th, our mock trial and press rally captured the attention of local news outlets who turned up to hear ‘testimony’ from public defenders, community members, and those directly impacted by the...Read More

On June 27, 2022, the SF Examiner published this Op Ed – What happens when San Francisco and other cities drastically underfund public defender offices – by San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju. Click through to read the full Opinion. Excerpt: As trusted advocates for our clients, public defenders are the best positioned out of...Read More

SF Examiner Reports on the “Legal Logjam” in SF Courts Keeping Hundreds in Jail Past Trial Deadlines “If we’re going to prioritize anything as The City reopens, the most important thing to prioritize, according to our Constitution, should be people’s right to liberty,” [raju] said. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office has been raising the...Read More

Zac Dillon of our Integrity Unit was quoted in the Examiner and Mission Local when he spoke at the September 1, 2021, meeting of the San Francisco Police Commission where they were discussing proposed legislation, SB 16, to expand police transparency laws in California. Both the new legislation and the original police transparency bill, SB...Read More

The San Francisco Examiner published this Op Ed by San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju on June 17, 2021. “We spend exponentially more on the departments that arrest, confine, incarcerate, and monitor than we do on the one department that fights for the most marginalized.”Read More

Photo: More than 100 people are still in jail awaiting trial past the last day in which they must be legally brought to trial. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner) The lack of courtroom access in San Francisco is a human rights issue By Mano Raju The murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis...Read More

Tragedy as Teacher – Curing Injustice Through Accountability Tracing By Danielle Harris, Managing Attorney of the Integrity Unit at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. An Op Ed, as it appeared in the San Francisco Examiner on February 14, 2021. Photo by Kevin N. Hume/SF Examiner. When tragedy strikes, we are scared and angry and...Read More

Michael Barba of the San Francisco Examiner reported: SF jail closure prompts doctor to call for release of more inmates. “We have to defer to Dr. Pratt’s medical and public health expertise and experience as to the number of people the jail can safely house,” said Danielle Harris, a managing attorney at the Public Defender’s...Read More

Michael Barba of the San Francisco Examiner reported: Audit over lab worker meth arrest finds medical examiner is missing drugs. “Clearly, their security protocols around handling evidence have been lax, which means that an untold number of criminal cases have likely been compromised by their carelessness,” Raju said. “People are likely in jail or prison...Read More

Nancy Chan reported in the San Francisco Examiner: SF City Attorney seeks to bar 28 alleged drug dealers from the Tenderloin. “More enforcement of low-level, subsistence street level sellers is not the solution to this ongoing public health crisis,” Raju said. “Rather, we should use our resources to provide meaningful alternatives to street level dealers...Read More